Parts of southern Manitoba are drenched after a series of thunderstorms overnight — and there’s more to come.
“Just shortly after the sun came up, we’ve had more thunderstorms start developing, so we’ll continue to see a chance of showers and thunderstorms through the morning hours,” said Brad Vrolijk, a lead forecaster with Environment Canada.
“There’ll be a break a little later this morning, but then the chance for more showers and thunderstorms will redevelop later in the day through the afternoon.”
The storms rolled into Manitoba overnight, ushered in by a warm front from Saskatchewan. The rain developed near Riding Mountain and slid southeastward through the night hours, through Winnipeg and Steinbach and beyond, Vrolijk said.
“Multiple thunderstorms came through, and some areas in southern Manitoba have finally got a good soaking. I think there’s a lot of places to be happy to see the rain we got last night,” he said.
Areas between the south end of Lake Manitoba and Winnipeg saw 20-40 millimetres, while the hardest hit area was Zhoda, south of Steinbach, with 60.7 mm.
The impact in Winnipeg was scattered, from 5-10 mm in the northeast to 24 mm in the downtown area. The data wasn’t available yet, but Vrolijk expects to see higher amounts reported for the southwest side of the city.
Mixed in with the unsettled weather were a few severe thunderstorms that likely produced large hail, Vrolijk said.
“We don’t have a lot of reports, because this happened at 2 a.m., 3 a.m., so lots of people were asleep at that point,” he said.
“But we did have several thunderstorm warnings through the night, mainly for storms northwest of Winnipeg and then south of Winnipeg, and it does look like some of those storms may have produced up to golf-ball-sized hail.”
As for the rain that’s still to come on Tuesday, it can be tricky pinpoint because of the convection that’s going to come with the heat — which should push temperatures around the 30 C mark over the next couple of days, Vrolijk said.
Many parts of southern Manitoba will see a chance of showers or thunderstorms through Tuesday, but the most likely area for severe weather will be north of Winnipeg and through the Interlake region.
Cooler air will start to push into Manitoba from the west as the week progresses, bringing another chance of showers and thunderstorms.
“And then this will finally depart the Prairies, and we’ll move into more seasonal, maybe slightly cooler than seasonal temperatures, to end the week,” Vrolijk said.
