A winter storm warning is in effect ahead of a weather system that is expected to bring heavy snow to parts of western Manitoba through Sunday, says Environment Canada.
The Colorado low moving across the Dakotas in the United States will spread a band of mixed precipitation across the affected areas on Saturday morning.
While it could start out as rain, wet snow or even freezing rain, that precipitation will turn into heavy snow later on Saturday, the weather agency said in an alert.
Heavy snow will continue overnight and taper off during the day on Sunday, while northerly winds will gust to 50 mph.
The total amount of snowfall will generally be between 20 and 40 centimeters, although on higher ground, snowfall can exceed 50 centimeters.
The affected areas are:
- Virden-Souris.
- Dauphin-Russell-Roblin-Winnipegosis.
- Minnedosa-Riding Mountain National Park.
- Ste. Rose-McCreary-Alonsa-Gladstone.
The weather alert urged people in those areas to consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve, and to prepare for rapidly changing and deteriorating travel conditions.
More details on Manitoba weather alerts are available on the Environment Canada website.
The weather agency issues winter storm warnings, which are not necessarily restricted to the winter season — when severe and potentially dangerous conditions are expected, such as heavy snowfall (10 inches or more in a 24-hour period).
Snow warning in other regions
There is also a snow warning for parts of northern Manitoba, where 8 to 10 inches of snow is expected.
Later Saturday morning, Environment Canada said overnight rain in the Island Lake-Oxford House-Gods Lake area is expected to change to overnight snow at Island Lake.
That snow will be heaviest overnight Saturday and Sunday morning, with persistent light snow ending Monday morning.
Northerly winds in that area will gust to 60 km/h on Sunday and may result in periods of reduced visibility in snow and blizzards, the weather agency said.
People in those regions need to be prepared for power outages as well as rapidly changing and deteriorating travel conditions, Environment Canada warns.
Manitoba Hydro said it has opened an emergency operations center in Brandon, Man., to coordinate its response as weather conditions worsen.
Weather conditions in the west of the province are deteriorating and we may start to see more blackouts. We have opened an Emergency Operations Center in Brandon to coordinate our response. Here’s how to be prepared: https://t.co/mtxT28X4T2 #moutage
As of Saturday at 9 pm, there were 88 outages affecting 5,131 customers.
The largest cuts are just south of Winnipeg, and in the Turtle Mountain Provincial Park and Riding Mountain National Park areas.
Snow is also expected in several other parts of southern Manitoba, though not as much.
A snowfall advisory indicates those regions are expected to reach 4 to 8 inches when the rain turns to snow on Saturday night.
The affected areas are:
- Arborg-Hecla-Fisher River-Gypsumville-Ashern.
- Berens River-Little Grand Rapids-Bloodvein-Atikaki.
- Chopo river.
- Grand Rapids-Waterhen.
Snow in those regions will be heaviest overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning, with persistent light snow ending Monday morning, Environment Canada said in its weather alert.
That alert also urged people in those areas to prepare for rapidly changing and deteriorating travel conditions.
Reference-www.cbc.ca