High winds that began earlier this week continued to batter parts of Manitoba overnight, kicking up dust, downing trees, damaging property and leading to dozens of power outages that persisted throughout the morning.
The weather downed power lines and trees across southwestern Manitoba, causing widespread outages in the Parkland and Westman regions. Manitoba Hydro crews attempted to restore power on Thursday, but extremely low visibility and dangerous wind speeds prevented crews from working through the night, the Crown corporation said.
A significant low-pressure system that began in central Alberta drove the winds east across the Prairies, Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor said.
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A tree on Stiles Street was blown over and fell atop a car.
“We’ve really seen really significant wind speeds associated with that system, more than anything else,” Proctor said.
“We’ve experienced the worst of the winds already, so, while we are seeing significant winds over southern Manitoba today, it won’t be as impactful as the winds we experienced on Thursday.”
The Westman region saw the highest wind-speeds on Thursday — peaking at 119 kilometres per hour near Deloraine, 113 km/h in Minto and 106 km/h in Brandon. Many other weather stations recorded speeds exceeding 90 km/h, Proctor said.
In Winnipeg, wind speeds reached 87 km/h.
Hydro’s website showed unplanned outages for dozens of customers throughout the city that were projected to persist into the afternoon Friday. High winds caused damage in Winnipeg, including on Stiles Street where a downed tree fell on the back end of a black SUV, crushing the rear passenger seats.
Proctor expected wind speeds to taper off throughout the day, gusting up to 80 km/h before dropping off in the western parts of the province followed by the eastern parts.
At its peak, the wind created dust storm conditions significant enough to be captured on weather radar from space, Proctor said.
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Low visibility and damage to power lines and crops are typically the greatest concerns with such a weather system, he added.
Northern Manitoba saw significant amounts of precipitation that produced snowfall between five to 10 centimetres in some communities.
A second weather system, slated to reach Winnipeg Sunday afternoon, will bring cooler temperatures and precipitation throughout the weekend and into next Tuesday, when there is a chance of mixed rain and snow.
Cool, damp conditions are not unusual for the May long weekend, Proctor noted.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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