Early Season Snowstorm Slams Southeastern Manitoba Head On

Some of the roads in Southeast Manitoba were virtually
unpassable due to slushy snow covered roads, leaving
crews with the only choice left, close the roads. Including
this highway in the RM of Stuartburn on Thursday. All
highways are now open due to improvements in
conditions.
 

A potent early season snowfall slammed into parts of Southern Manitoba during the day Thursday Oct. 4th bringing with it significant and unexpected snowfall to southeastern regions of our province. Precipitation from this system started falling as rain through Wednesday Night into Thursday morning before it switched over to snow and continued throughout the day, with snowfall accumulations of 10 to 30 cm reported in the Sprague, Steinbach, Whiteshell, and Bissett regions. However conditions were more sufficient for a rain/snow mix further west in the Red River Valley with a slushy coating of snow in downtown and Eastern Parts of Winnipeg by afternoon, though things were worse off in Portage La Prairie where near zero visibility was reported at times as a result from the lake effect snow coming off Lake Manitoba. Strong winds out of the North gusting from 60 to 70 km/h came along with the storm, which combined with the heavy wet snow resulted in tree damage along with some power outages in Eastern Manitoba, with numerous hydro poles downed.  During the storm road conditions were poor with travel not advised for many from the American Border in the Southeast to The Ontario Border near the Whiteshell. (Pictures from the Storm are available in one of my latest posts Picture Gallery: Early Season Snowstorm Slams Southeastern Manitoba Head On)

Snowfall Totals From The Storm (via Rob's Blog)

A great example of where all the snow
fell during the storm including places
south of the lakes where the lake
effect snows took place.

 Sandilands ............. 30 cm (trees down)
 Hadashville ............ 30 cm (see photo)
 Woodridge ............. 30 cm (see photo)
 La Broquerie .......... 27 cm
 Falcon Lake............ 25-30 cm (est) 
 Vita ........................ 25 cm
 Pinawa ................... 20-30 cm
 Bissett .................... 20 cm
 South Junction ........ 20-30 cm  /nr Sprague/
 Steinbach ...............  8 cm

The early snowfall, even though it was an inconvience it brought some very much needed moisture to our region that has been very dry over the past several weeks. The snowfall brought relief to all firefighting efforts, including the one windswept wildfire in the vita area that forced residents to evacuate two days earlier. In Winnipeg 8mm of rain and wet snow was recorded at the CYWG (City of Winnipeg) airport by evening. Across the city 10 to 20 mm of rain was reported, (19mm at the forks) and a good 10 to 12 mm at my place by Bruce Ave in St.James.

 

A great analysis of past early snowfalls in Winnipeg and in Southern Manitoba can be found at... Rob's Blog