WINNIPEG – Wind chill warnings, blowing snow, and snowfall warnings. This winter has been a battle for every Manitoban, no matter how long you’ve lived here.
January 2014 will go down in the record books as the coldest January in 10 years. With a mean temperature of -20.3 it’s been a “don’t forget to plug in that car” kind of season. In 2004, our mean temperature was -21.7. (mean is defined by Environment Canada as the minimum and maximum temperature at a location for a specified time interval)
As we prepare for February, we immediately start thinking we’re in the home stretch! Unfortunately, we’ll start out next month with below average temperatures. The normal high for this time of year is -11 with a low of -21. Friday afternoon the temperature sits at -18. You do the math.
And how about that snow? Already this winter, (November 2013 – January 2014) Winnipeg has had 104.0 cm of snow. Realistically we still have another 3 months where we could see some snowfall, so we may just be inching closer to last year’s total of 172.4 cm. Just to throw out a comparison, Portage La Prairie’s snowfall total last winter was 116.2cm. That’s a lot of shoveling!
On the bright side, the Spring Equinox is only 48 days away! And, I’m almost sure the Groundhog won’t see his shadow on February 2nd resulting in a shortened winter. Ok, maybe not…but we can always hope. In the meantime, don’t forget to plug in your car.
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