Move over spring; Colorado Low coming

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/03/2018 (2938 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SOUTHERN Manitoba residents should park those reveries of spring: Environment Canada says a major winter storm is headed this way.

As much as 30 centimetres of snow is expected to fall across the area, including the Interlake, starting Sunday night and continuing into Tuesday morning.

A Colorado low will descend on southern Manitoba, bringing a prolonged period of heavy snow, strong winds and blowing snow, Environment Canada said Friday.

Colorado lows are difficult to forecast, so there is still a high degree of uncertainty. However, Environment Canada predicted 15 to 30 cm of snow will fall. Periods of poor visibility with blowing snow will also affect travel Monday and Tuesday, the service said.

This season, Winnipeg had the driest December-to-February period since records started being kept in 1872, with just 14.6 millimetres of snow. The next-driest December-to-February was 25.9 mm in 1982-83.

The three-month period is considered the meteorological winter.

Meanwhile, the Souris River Basin in southwestern Manitoba is in historic drought, with next to no snow cover.

It’s been the opposite in northern Manitoba. Thompson has had its snowiest winter in almost four decades, with 73 cm as of mid-February — the most in any year since before the 1980s.