Severe thunderstorm watches and warnings were in place Wednesday morning in parts of southwestern Manitoba.
Thunderstorm activity may have woken up some residents in southwestern Manitoba before their alarm was scheduled to go off. A band of heavy rain and hail swept across the region in the morning hours. Radar imagery painted an ominous picture.
The problem with the thunderstorms Wednesday morning is the majority of the precipitation fell between observation stations. Boissevain registered 28.4 mm of rain as of 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, but the radar picture would indicate far more could have fallen.
According to Environment Canada, hail was part of these storms and the larger bundles of ice being picked up by the radar would make rainfall totals based on radar imagery unreliable.
Regardless, there were some other reading stations that appeared to register very high rainfall amounts.
The thunderstorm outlook for July 19 indicated there is a chance of severe weather returning to southwestern Manitoba in the afternoon and evening. The severity of these storms will depend on the amount of clearing after the morning storms.
Thunderstorm activity is expected to initiate along the Saskatchewan border early in the afternoon, through the Red River Valley by late afternoon and into southeastern Manitoba in the evening.
The potential for severe storms should lessen as they enter the Red River Valley and continue eastward.
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