Approximately 28,000 Manitoba Hydro customers were without power in and around Winnipeg Thursday morning after a storm whipped through the area, it said.
The storm began early Wednesday evening around Brandon, in southwest Manitoba, and continued brewing as the night progressed, Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) told Global News.
“This sort of propagated across southern (Manitoba), and across the city of Winnipeg, sort of between 10 and 11 at night more than anything else,” he said, adding the storm was “very, very active” at that time.
“We also had some brief downpours associated with that. Some small hail, as well, but really, more than anything, (it was) a straight-line wind event.”
More than 2,900 lightning strikes were seen within a 50 kilometre radius of the city’s centre, the meteorologist said. Winds in Winnipeg reached 91 kilometres an hour, according to ECCC, while Brandon saw wind gusting up to 133 km/h.
“Winnipeg is probably the capital of Canada for getting sort of late-night thunderstorms and overnight thunderstorms,” Proctor said.
“We’ve seen a much higher frequency of intense storms, and a much lower frequency of just sort of more benign, if I can put it that way, thunderstorms, more air mass kind of thunderstorms.”
The intensity of the storm downed trees, knocking out power for many Winnipeggers, Proctor said.
The City of Winnipeg has received 689 tree-related service requests since Wednesday’s storm, it said in an email statement for Global News. Wind-damaged trees are being cleared by crews, who are basing their response on priority.
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“Trees or branches blocking streets, sidewalks, or boulevards, or creating an immediate safety risk are handled first, while debris pickup will follow,” the city wrote.
Manitoba Hydro crews have been deployed to assess downed lines and restore power for those affected, most of whom are in Winnipeg, according to its spokesperson Peter Chura.
“The vast majority of (the affected customers) are in the city of Winnipeg and that’s where we’re seeing most of the extensive damage from trees on lines, lines down, whole power lines taken down,” Chura told 680 CJOB Thursday morning.
Outages affecting the most people are being prioritized, Chura added.
“Customers who are out of power now should be prepared for an extended outage, throughout the day, at least, for sure. I anticipate there will be some out overnight, but we don’t know until later today.”
Chura said outages were also reported in Brandon and around Portage la Prairie, and that most of the impacted customers in Brandon have had their power restored.
Thousands were without power in Transcona Thursday morning, he noted, adding that the worst hit areas include Elmhurst, Silver Heights and Charleswood.
James Jordan, a resident of Winnipeg’s Charleswood neighbourhood, told 680 CJOB he was watching the storm with his wife and “hunkering down for the night.”
“My wife and I love watching storms, so we saw the lightning, thought it’d be great. She started freaking out when she saw the little trees whipping around, thinking, ‘Oh, if they break, oh no.’ And I said, ‘No, it’s the big trees you’ve got to worry about,’” he recounted.
“Well, we heard a snap, took a look in the front, (and) huge limb of our tree went right down on the truck.”
Thankfully, Jordan said, nothing on his truck was broken — but he noted a couple of dents in the frame. He managed to remove the tree limb himself, using a reciprocating saw.
Elsewhere in Charleswood, Jordan reported seeing downed trees, knocked-over fences and traffic lights out of service. The City of Winnipeg said it received 41 reports of malfunctioning traffic signals following the storm.
“(I) saw a gazebo blown over somebody’s yard, bent to pieces. There’s a lot of damage in the area. The winds were really bad last night,” Jordan said.
Manitoba Hydro is advising anyone who comes across a downed power line to stay away and call 911.
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