Second Round of March Thunderstorms Rumble Through Winnipeg and some parts Of Manitoba

Radar Image from EC at 0000 UTC

As predicted Winnipeg and Southern Manitoba saw the years second round of March Thunderstorms, and it did not disappoint. The evening started off fairly quiet in Manitoba ,with some gusty southeast winds and the odd rain shower. The quiet subsided and the first of the storms appeared on radar west of Dauphin where a cluster of storms formed at 18:00 CDT along highway 5. The storms that formed along highway 5 continued to travel to the northeast hitting areas like Winnipegosis and the northern lakes region. Hail, heavy downpours and intense lightning were reported at the storms greatest intensity where CB Cloud Tops reached an estimated 37,000 feet. Not long after a small storm cell formed and went over the city of Brandon and the RM of Cornwallis. Not much fell from that storm other than light rains and strong Lightning, it was enough to prompt EC to report a thunderstorm over Brandon.

At the same time there was a cluster of storms forming Near the Black Hills in NW South Dakota, at the ND/SD and CO border. This was the main focus for areas in Southern Manitoba later in the night, as they would be carried North along with the Low Pressure System and the fast flowing LLJ. At approx 12am the storms transitioned into a multi cellular line of storms as they crossed the border into North Dakota generating reports of  quarter size hail, gusty winds in excess of 50 mph, intense lightning, and very loud thunder. As a result the NWS issued severe thunderstorm Watches for the Western Half of North Dakota as they travelled northward. Unfortunately the same line of storms split up as they were about to cross the Manitoba border, leaving the more intense activity on more of the western edge of the line. Areas anywhere in between Melita and Winkler were affected. This left the less intense activity on the eastern edge where only showers were falling.

This whole story reversed as the storms crossed the border, in this case the storms on the western edge in areas like Killarney transferred all of the convective energy to the east allowing for more potent storms to form just south of Winnipeg. In this case the storms that formed started travelling to the N and developed rain with lots of lightning ,allowing for us in Winnipeg to see our second thunderstorm event of the year. There were a few reports of dime size hail in St.Vital for 5 to 10 min during the storms. For those who were in and around the storms it sure did bring a really good quality lightshow, one that we won't forget soon. Although all of that lightning did come at a cost, a lightning bolt was reported to have struck a transformer in the River Park South area resulting in 100 people being left without power. The power was restored a short while later, that is a great example of how powerful one flash of lightning can really be whether it be close or faraway.

Overall it was a night some won't soon forget. Yet more storms are possible throughout the coming months, and this may signal the beginning of a very active storm season.

(Right: Youtube- Storm In Winnipeg)