Part 1/2: A Look Back At The Storm That Delivered A Winter Wallop To Southern Manitoba (Part 2 Soon To Follow!)

A view of the Pembina-Bishop Grandin Blvd Camera at 10pm on November 10th when visibilty was poor and snowfall rates of 5cm/hr were reported. Via Rob's Blog

Winter arrived with a vengeance Saturday as a well advertised winter storm brought widespread snow across much of southern Manitoba Saturday into Saturday night. The colorado low storm system which tracked across Northern Minnesota Saturday night, brought two waves of snow... one that began in the early morning hours Saturday and moved into the interlake areas, and another heavier burst of snow Saturday evening and overnight that brought very heavy snowfall rates up to 5cm/hr at times across the Red River Valley including Winnipeg. When the snowfall settled down Sunday morning, it left impressive snowfall totals over Southern Manitoba, transitioning what was a bare snowfree landscape Friday into a beauty of a winter landscape. All of this happened within 36 hours...


Some storm snowfall totals reported as of Sunday morning Nov 11th.. (Courtesy of Rob's Blog)

Mafeking ................. 65 cm (Highway 10 between Swan River and The Pas)
Ashern ...................... 40-60 cm
Hodgson ................... 40 cm
Swan River ............... 40 cm
St Alphonse .............. 40 cm
Portage La Prairie ..... 37 cm
Dauphin .................... 33 cm
Baldur ....................... 33 cm
Holland ..................... 32 cm
Belmont .................... 32 cm
Gilbert Plains ............. 25-35 cm
Roblin ....................... 24 cm
St.James Winnipeg (My site)....23cm
Winnipeg ................. 22 cm (greatest 24 hr snowfall since Dec 2006)
St Claude ................. 22 cm
Marquette ................. 21 cm
Brandon .................... 20 cm
Neepawa .................. 20 cm
Woodlands ............... 20 cm
Morden .................... 14 cm
Carman .................... 12 cm
Pinawa ...................... 11 cm
Steinbach ................. 10 cm
Emerson .................... 10 cm

This scene was a lot like other places in Southern Manitoba during the day Sunday, after the winter storm. Picture from Grand Rapids,MB



Winnipeg's snowfall of 22 cm was the city's greatest 24 hr snowfall since Dec 30-31 2006 when 32 cm fell. Heaviest snowfall with this storm was in a wide area from the Riding Mountains and Duck Mountains through the interlake, as well as a narrower band from the Western Red River Valley through Portage la Prairie into the central interlakes thanks to some slow moving heavy snows that set up Saturday evening. Neighbouring areas of eastern Saskatchewan were also hit hard with 30 to 45cm reported from Regina to Yorkton. There was much less snowfall south and east of Winnipeg especially towards the Ontario border where precipitation fell as a mix of freezing rain and light snow during Saturday.


Trucks line up in Headingley MB
waiting for the TransCanada to open (via Rob's Blog)



The storm was bad enough to force the closure of the TransCanada highway Saturday night between Headinglyand Brandon due to the extreme winter conditions that were in place. The highway reopened on Sunday Evening.  

24 hr Radar accumulation summaries to 9 am Sunday morning




The Foxwarren Radar imagery of rainfall totals in mm to 9am Sunday. Note the data on the radar does not accurately reflect the snowfall totals we recieved. Please match your region to the corresponding legend in mm and convert to cm using Google Calculator. 

The Woodlands Radar imagery of rainfall totals in mm to 9am Sunday. Note the data on the radar does not accurately reflect the snowfall totals we recieved. Please match your region to the corresponding legend in mm and convert to cm using Google Calculator.