Weakening Montana low drops less snow than expected

Despite Brandon only receiving four centimetres of snow overnight, southwestern Manitoba remained under a yellow warning for snowfall on Wednesday, with another five to 10 centimetres expected.

“Winter isn’t done with us yet,” said Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Terri Lang.

A Montana low moved through Alberta and Saskatchewan before making its way through Manitoba starting late Tuesday — a “unique system” that rarely sweeps across the Prairies, she said.

The system draws warmer air from the south, which holds more moisture, and clashes with cold air from the north, creating heavier snowfall.

Lang said the Montana low is weakening and didn’t strike Manitoba as hard as Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“That being said, there’s still lots of snow spread across southern Manitoba, and some heavier pockets,” she said.

On Tuesday, Environment Canada had predicted Brandon could see up to 25 centimetres of snow by today, while the Parkland region could get as much as 30 centimetres.

Dauphin received five to six centimetres of snow and Boissevain got 12 centimetres overnight Tuesday. Environment Canada didn’t have snowfall measurements for other parts of Westman, Lang said.

Brandon and the Parkland region were expected to see wind gusts as high as 60 kilometres an hour on Wednesday and no freezing rain is anticipated for the duration of the storm, she said.

The City of Brandon started snow-clearing operations on priority streets, including 34th Street, 26th Street and Rosser, Princess and Park avenues, at midnight, the city said in a news release on Wednesday.

Snow-clearing efforts will take place over the next few days. Plowing for multi-use pathways also began at midnight, with sidewalk clearing starting today at 8 a.m.

Back-lane clearing began Wednesday on route 3, which includes city streets from College Avenue to Richmond Avenue and 26th Street to 42nd Street, ahead of today’s collection.

Other back-lane routes will be reassessed today, the release said.

A few school divisions in the Westman region closed on Wednesday or had rural bus cancellations.

Buses outside the Brandon School Division weren’t operating, but all schools and buses in the city remained open.

Classes were cancelled for Alexander, École O’Kelly, and Spring Valley schools.

School attendance was at parental discretion where travel was required.

All schools in the Fort La Bosse, Turtle Mountain and Southwest Horizon school divisions were closed, with no buses running.

Schools in the Mountain View School Division were open, but rural bus routes were cancelled. No buses were operating in the Beautiful Plains School Division, but all schools remained open.

Assiniboine College’s Parkland campus closed on Wednesday, and classes were cancelled all day at campuses in Virden, Southport, Morden and Otterburne. The Brandon campus resumed classes at 11:30 a.m.

Highway 83 from the junction of Highway 57 to Russell, Highway 45 from Russell to Vista, and Highway 5 from Roblin to provincial road 584 closed around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday due to poor winter driving conditions, including blowing and drifting snow.

A provincial notification said the highways reopened around 1 a.m.

The Trans-Canada Highway was partly snow-covered from Portage la Prairie to the Saskatchewan border throughout Wednesday.

Lang reminds people to drive safely and check the highway conditions before going out “because maybe it doesn’t look so bad out the window, but once you get out in the open, those winds can really take off.”

A lull in poorer winter driving conditions can make some people complacent about not only driving for the conditions, but also about cold weather, she said.

Colder temperatures are also expected across southwestern Manitoba this week.

“It looks like overnight lows are going to start getting into that -20 C to -25 C range and as soon as you put on a little bit of wind with that, those wind chills do come up,” Lang said.

Today’s daytime temperature is expected to reach a high of -11 C with the wind chill making it feel more like -22 C.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com