Severe weather season off to late start, peak about one month away

WINNIPEG — Severe weather season has arrived in the province and weather experts say we are off to a late start.

Meteorologist Jay Anderson says Manitobans can expect more thunderstorms with the peak of the season just under a month away.

He offers a word of caution to untrained ‘storm chasers’ tempted to get a good look.

“They may get themselves into places they shouldn’t be,” says Anderson. “Make sure you know what you’re doing or stay away.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They may get themselves into places they shouldn't be," says Anderson. "Make sure you know what you're doing or stay away."

He adds that the roll of today’s social media has significantly improved our ability to capture severe weather. “We don’t miss much these days.”

But that ability to share can skew perception. For example, he says there were actually far fewer tornadoes in Manitoba decades ago than today.

“Nowadays we’ve dropped way, way down and in fact last year’s tornado numbers were the lowest in about 40 years.”