It’s going to happen sooner than you may expect but Winnipeg may end the streak of days above 0° Celsius as soon as Sunday morning — just hours after the autumn equinox.
The last time Winnipeg was below 0 C was May 19 around 5 a.m., which puts the streak potentially ending at 126 days.
This streak of days above the freezing mark is pretty typical for the city. On average, the streak will last 122 days and coincidentally, usually ends as fall begins — Sept. 22.
In between these days, the summer has been hot! According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2018 was the 15th-warmest on record in Winnipeg. The city also had temperatures reach more than 30 C a total of 26 times. This is double what usually happens and puts this summer in the top 10 for most days over this temperature mark.
The summer can also be characterized by its dryness. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, this was the 16th driest June-July-August.
Rainfall totals for these months got progressively lighter with 65.1mm in June, 41.1mm in July, and 31.8mm in August. In total, this is 58.5 per cent of the normal rainfall amounts over these three months (144.3mm compared to the average 246.5mm).
Dry summer conditions are nothing new to Winnipeg and southern Manitoba. Summer 2017 was even drier all across the southern prairies with below normal precipitation amounts in Brandon, Portage la Prairie, and Winnipeg as well.
RELATED: Wrapping up the great summer of 2017 in Manitoba
Brandon had 65 per cent of the normal rain amounts with 144mm instead of the average 220mm, Portage received 64 per cent of the total rainfall with 131.4mm of the normal 236.7mm, and Winnipeg was at 55 per cent with 136.6mm of the average 246.5mm. This made it the 12th driest summer on record in Winnipeg.
Fall officially begins at 8:54 P.M. Saturday and it will start even cooler than how summer ends. The weekend forecast calls for showers Saturday and Sunday with temperatures staying below 10° C in the afternoon both days and staying below seasonal all through next week.
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