Snow in short supply in Winnipeg despite the city’s Winterpeg nickname

November 12, 2024 Canuck

Christmas decorations are installed across downtown Winnipeg and shopping mall Santas are set to show up in some stores as soon as this weekend, but one key element of the season is missing: snow.

“There was a little bit of snow reported by a few people in Winnipeg, I think it was yesterday morning, but obviously it didn’t stay. We haven’t had snow accumulating in Winnipeg since sometime earlier last winter,” said Natalie Hasell, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

“Generally speaking, we haven’t had a whole lot of snow since the beginning of January, really.”

In fact, the last time a snowfall was recorded at the Winnipeg airport was on April 19, making it 206 days without any snow, she said.

Tall trees with no leaves border a street with cars parked at the side. — The only things currently piling up against the curbs on Winnipeg streets are leaves, left, whereas November streets usually look like the image at right. (Darren Bernhardt/CBC)

Normally, Winnipeg would see its first snowfall in October, “and then November is the month where, clearly, the majority of the precipitation ends up being snow,” Hasell said.

But for the past two years, November has been camouflaged as September.

Last year golfers were still on some Winnipeg courses in mid-November.

The warm trend continued through the next three months, with temperature records being set around the province, delaying the opening of Winnipeg’s popular Nestaweya River Trail, then shutting it down a few days later.

The Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival in The Pas was forced to cancel the world championship dog races, one of its signature events, because they didn’t have enough snow base to ensure the trails would be safe for participants.

Golfers were again hitting balls at the end of January, when some driving ranges opened, but potholes around Winnipeg were also back as the continuing freeze-thaw cycle damaged the roads.

And the Ironman Outdoor Curling Bonspiel, which annually takes place on the Red River in February, was postponed.

The weird weather also caused four isolated First Nations in northeastern Manitoba to declare states of emergency because many of the province’s winter roads — much of which run across frozen lakes — were not ready. That made it impossible to bring in hundreds of loads of essential supplies to their communities.

Last year, the abnormality was blamed on the influence of an El Niño weather pattern.

So far this year, the warmth is being driven by air being pushed up from California and New Mexico, reaching into the southern Prairies, Hasell said.

The extent of the impact depends on where you live in the province, though.

“We have had some snow in Riding Mountain National Park and we have had snow in further north — so central and northern Manitoba. But for southern Manitoba, except for Riding Mountain National Park, we really haven’t had very much,” Hasell said.

“It is unusual, absolutely.”

It’s also unlikely to last too much longer, she said.

“We do see a change coming. The next couple systems should bring down colder air, and allowing that colder air to come down into southern Manitoba will make it more likely that we will get snow,” Hasell said.

That probably won’t happen for another week or week and a half, with the forecast pointing at a return to normal conditions around Nov. 20-27.

People get onto a bus on a snowy, dark morning — Winnipeg was hit with its first big snowfall last year on Oct. 27, but it melted away with warmer temperatures in November. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

“And we do have a system going through right around then, so that could be our first real snowfall of the season,” Hasell said.

“But that’s pretty far, forecast-wise. There’s still a lot of uncertainty.”

The normal temperature for this time of year is a high of –1 C and overnight low of –9 C.

Winnipeg so far through November has averaged a daily high of 8 C, with four days last week hitting double digits, and an average low of 4 C.

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