After a record-breaking 2021-22 winter season that saw Manitoba hit hard with above-average snowfall, Winnipeggers are gearing up for another go around with snow and cold.
The phone at Osborne Auto Centre has been ringing off the hook with customers anxious about getting winter tires on, manager Parysh Blakney tells Global News.
“I guess everybody got scared of last winter a little bit and are trying to get ready so they’re not stuck with summer tires on,” Blakney said Friday.
“This year, they’re trying to get it done before the snow falls, so they’re not stuck spinning everywhere.”
Manitoba was hit with several large storms last winter, and even as early as February, Winnipeg had recorded its third-highest snowfall since 1872.
By the end of the season the city says crews had hauled 1.8 million cubic metres of snow to its disposal sites — some of which still have small piles of snow left over.
Parysh said she is seeing more drivers purchasing new winter tires than they have in the past, while others are stepping-up to studded tires.
She said the shop is already booking into mid-November but they’re expecting things to get even busier when the first flakes actually fly.
“Every year,” she laughs of the shop’s anticipated coming storm of calls, “regardless of how many people try to be proactive.”
A similar story is playing out at Green Blade Lawn Care, which does residential snow removal work.
Tim Muys with Green Blade says he started getting calls about booking work for this coming winter at the end of last winter.
“There’s a lot of people very scared and don’t want to (shovel snow) again,” Muys said Friday.
“I think they went through a brutal year and they’re saying to themselves, ‘You know what, I don’t want to do it again.’
“It’s much nicer to sit in the house and drink hot chocolate and watch someone else take care of it.”
Muys says the company’s customer list has already grown longer than it was last winter even though no snow has fallen yet.
That could change soon though.
Environment Canada says an Alberta clipper may bring snow and strong winds to parts of west-central Manitoba this weekend.
The weather agency says the snowy weather is likely to affect an area spanning from The Pas to Flin Flon, starting Saturday afternoon.
As for Winnipeg, Environment Canada says there’s a chance of snow or rain in the city on Sunday.
— with files from Global News’ Rosanna Hempel and The Canadian Press
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