We’re only seven days into March, but according to a senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, it’s already the snowiest month southern Manitoba has seen this season, thanks to a fresh dump of snow overnight.
“It was a quick hitter, sort of like a hit-and-run,” David Phillips told 680 CJOB’s The Start Thursday morning.
“It came up from North Dakota, didn’t have a lot of moisture, but (there were) a lot of dynamics in the atmosphere and it brought a lot of snow in a very short time.”
While Winnipeg saw between eight and 15 centimetres of the white stuff, Brandon got hit the hardest at 16 centimetres, with residents of the Virden and Morden areas also seeing double-digit accumulations of snow.
The storm, Phillips said, was essentially out of the province by Thursday morning, but lingering flurries and, especially, strong winds are still something to watch for.
There is, however, something positive just over the horizon.
“We see this week coming up. … My gosh, there’s going to be almost no weather in Winnipeg and Manitoba,” he said.
“I see that sunshine coming for a whole week and no precipitation at all. We see some warming — you’re going to get a touch of spring come Sunday, and into early next week, it’s going to feel like spring has sprung.”
Phillips said all of the meteorological models seem to agree that — early snowfall aside — the month of March is looking like it’ll be drier than usual, with temperatures ranging from normal to milder than normal.
That being said, it’s not quite time to put away the shovel just yet, as winter weather often extends well into a Manitoba spring.
“I’ve always said, don’t take your snow tires off, don’t put away the snowpants until we get out of March,” he said.
“Don’t write the obituary on winter just yet.”