Western Manitoba shovels out after winter finally hits

Snowy, icy and windy conditions created hazardous driving conditions in many areas of western Manitoba on Wednesday as a jolt of winter arrived overnight.

Areas in the Red River Valley, including Winnipeg, are on the edge of the system, which is expected to arrive in the evening with temperatures dropping and snow starting, according to Environment Canada.

A long stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway, from the town of Austin to the Saskatchewan border, remains closed in both directions, along with a number of other roads, going as far north as Camperville and as far south as the international border.

A constantly updated and interactive map, showing all highway conditions, is available on the Manitoba government website.

The weather system, which moved into Manitoba from Saskatchewan, is bringing heavy snowfall to a swath of the province and putting an abrupt end to a long, unseasonably warm fall.

"The switch has been flipped," Chris Murphy, a meteorologist at The Weather Network, said Wednesday morning on CBC News Network.

A winter storm warning from Environment Canada covers the entire Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, while a snowfall warning is in place for South Indian Lake and Amisk Provincial Park in the more central part of Manitoba.

The warning calls for widespread snowfall amounts of 15-25 centimetres, with some heavier local accumulations as high as 30-50 cm by Wednesday evening, along with northerly winds gusting to 60 km/h and causing poor visibility.

Conditions will improve through the day Wednesday as the snow tapers off and winds diminish, the weather agency said.

Some places, like Carberry, have already seen close to 23 cm of snow, while in other areas, the wind is blowing it around and making it difficult to know exact amounts, said Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

"Official readings at Brandon are somewhere around 10 or 12 centimetres of snow, but that's how much is making it into the gauge. There's a pretty good chance that people have actually seen quite a bit more than that."

School and bus cancellations

The difficult conditions have also impacted many schools, with cancellations of bus service or classes entirely.

Schools are closed in the following divisions:

• Southwest Horizon.
• Beautiful Plains.
• Park West.
• Fort La Bosse.
• Rolling River.
• Prairie Spirit.
• Mountain View.
• Region A of Prairie Rose School Division.

Brandon School Division buses are not operating outside the city, which means Alexander , O'Kelly and Spring Valley Colony schools are closed for the day. Schools within the city are open but attendance is at parental discretion where travel is required.

The Franco-Manitoban School Division has cancelled classes for the day at École Saint-Lazare, École Jours de Plaine (Laurier), École La Source (Shilo) and École Notre-Dame de Lourdes. 

Classes are on but buses are not running for École communautaire Gilbert-Rosset (St. Claude).

"The Red River Valley is basically the space where things switch from rain to snow — just west of Winnipeg, it's kind of weird, just almost along the escarpment," said Hasell.

"Not very far from Winnipeg, we have practically blizzard conditions. If we look at Brandon … the winds are gusting to 76 km/h."

The city, and most areas in the Red River Valley, have had a wet 24 hours. Areas just north of the Trans-Canada Highway corridor received 10-20 millimetres while areas south of it had closer to 20-30 mm, Environment Canada said.

The rain will change to snow from southwest to northeast through Wednesday. Accumulations by evening will likely range up to 5 centimetres near Lake Winnipeg and as high as 10-15 cm in the western Red River Valley.

"Our low-pressure system has positioned itself just south of Winnipeg, but there's a lot of warm air wrapping around it into areas north, Winnipeg included. The rest of the western part of the province and northern part of the province is in the cold air," Hasell said.

"We are expecting that a little bit later [in Winnipeg], as this low slowly moves east and we will no longer be in the warm wraparound air. That's what we thought would happen yesterday — it was supposed to happen overnight.

"It's on our doorstep."

When the snow arrives in Winnipeg, it will also bring a quick drop in temperatures, "so it will feel quite a bit colder than it felt in a really long time," Hasell said.

The city has averaged a high of 7.8 C so far this month, with double-digit days just over a week ago. The normal high is –4 C.

By the weekend, Winnipeg's forecast to get highs of –6 C and then –11 C by the beginning of next week.