Westman residents grabbing their shovels

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/04/2022 (1428 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Westman is continuing to dig itself out of the massive spring snowstorm that swept through the region this week.

While the storm may have been less intense than expected, many areas were still inundated with massive levels of snow, said Natalie Hasell warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

“While there might not have been exact certainty about how much or where or how strong the winds were going to be, we did know something bad was coming and that it was going to be pretty long-lasting,” Hasell said.

Brandon saw about 12 centimetres of snowfall Wednesday, Hasell said, and had periods where visibility was reduced to zero due to the blowing blizzard for hours at a time.

Thursday saw sustained winds and dustings of snow with reduced visibility and about four to six additional centimetres of snow, before the bulk of the storm completed. She said it will be difficult to establish a final snowfall number due to the high winds reported in the city.

The storm transpired a little bit differently than predicted Tuesday when watches were in effect, but it was still a very difficult storm that affected everyone in southwestern Manitoba. Manitoba RCMP shut down major highways in southwest Manitoba Tuesday at midnight in anticipation of the storm.

“It’s almost heart attack snow, as some people call it. It’s also the spring melt had already started, so there were certainly many concerns associated with having yet another system come through.”

The April blizzard was projected to snow between 50 and 80 centimetres in some parts of Manitoba. These values were somewhat tempered and most areas saw between 20 to 60 centimetres. Some regions reported up to 80.

“It might take a while before we get a conclusion on what actually transpired up to now.”

With less snow than expected, there is a hope Westman will not see lingering effects, including potential flooding.

One advantage in the coming week is the expectation that temperatures will stay below zero, which will prevent the snow from melting right away. The freeze-thaw cycle, with temperatures above zero during the day and below zero at night, will also be of aid in slowing flooding.

Southwestern Manitoba temperatures are expected to stay below normal until the end of April.

The province has started ratcheting down its flood response after water levels receded and the risk of flooding dropped, reported the Winnipeg Free Press. Although parts of the province received up to 50 centimetres of snow, and up to 15 more Friday, flooding is less of a risk because temperatures are expected to remain near freezing until April 21 in most locations, delaying the snowmelt and runoff.

The province said flood forecasters will continue to monitor precipitation and collect data about snowfall amounts. An updated river forecast will be released next week.

“This is the third-most snowfall winter that we [have] on record,” Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said.

“It’s not just that we had snow. We’ve had the winds, and I’ve never seen winds like this in a number of years.”

The Brandon Sun contacted the City of Brandon for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

A city press release Wednesday stated the emergency response control group was monitoring the spring snowstorm and its impact on all essential services. Brandon’s Community Sportsplex and the Youth Centre were both closed.

Other parts of Westman were also inundated with snow. Boissevain-Morton Head of Council Judy Swanson said the small town saw severe snowfall over the three days.

“It has been very snowy. It has been a blizzard here,” Swanson said. “We’re left with huge banks of snow everywhere.”

Three municipal graters used for rural areas were deployed in Boissevain to open up all the streets in town and were out in rural parts Friday working to reopen roads.

Swanson has been living in Boissevain for the last 10 years after residing in Saskatchewan for four decades. Swanson was born and raised in the area.

It has been many years since Boissevain faced a blizzard this intense, she said, especially in the spring.

“You look for some of these storms in the winter but they aren’t normal in the spring,” Swanson said. “This time of year is extremely bad, especially because of the farmers, especially the cattle producers; they’re out calving right now and there’s nothing worse than this — it’s pretty bad.”

On Friday, Swanson estimated she had about two or three feet of snowbanks. In other parts of the community, snow banks were as high as four or five feet.

The spring snowstorm has created great snowshoeing weather that is a perfect match to the mild temperatures expected for this weekend.

Friends of Riding Mountain National Park chief administrative officer George Hartlen said the last three days have once again created a “winter wonderland” in Wasagaming.

The storm first started to drop snow mid-Wednesday and continued with white-out conditions until about midday Thursday leaving behind more than 80 centimetres of snow.

The heavy and wet snow did impact some businesses in the area, he said, and as of Friday, some were preparing for the weekend and digging themselves out.

It has been many years since anything close to the storm has been seen in Riding Mountain, Hartlen said. He has been with the park for more than 20 years.

“The last couple of winters, we haven’t had any real significant snowfalls overall, and I would say even just the storm we got in the last 48 hours was probably more than we had all of last winter,” Hartlen said. “It’s a lot of snow to deal with.”

» ckemp@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

» Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp