Early season snowstorm slams southeast Manitoba

Heavy snow and downed trees
made roads nearly impassable
near Vassar, MB - Oct 4 2012

A powerful early season snowstorm slammed southern Manitoba Thursday Oct 4th bringing significant snowfall to southeastern parts of the province. Rain from the system changed to snow early Thursday and continued through the day, with accumulations of 10-30 cm reported over the Steinbach, Whiteshell, Sprague and Bissett regions. Snow was mixed with rain further west over the Red river valley with a slushy coating of snow in Winnipeg by afternoon.  Strong northerly winds gusting to 60 or 70 km/h accompanied the storm, which combined with the heavy wet snow resulted in tree damage and power outages over much of SE Manitoba, with numerous hydro poles and hydro lines downed.  Road conditions over southeastern MB were poor due to the heavy snow and poor visibility, with travel not advised from Steinbach to the Ontario border. (see some impressive snowfall photos from Steinbach Online photo gallery showing extent of snow over southeast Manitoba) 

Snowfall totals from the storm included..

Satellite image Oct 6 2012 showing
extent of snowcover over SE MB.
Note also bands of lake effect snow
off Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba
which set up Friday behind storm.

Sandilands ............. 30 cm (trees down)
Hadashville ............ 30 cm (see photo)
Woodridge ............. 30 cm (see photo)
La Broquerie .......... 27 cm
Falcon Lake............ 25-30 cm (est) 
Vita ........................ 25 cm
Pinawa ................... 20-30 cm
Bissett .................... 20 cm
South Junction ........ 20-30 cm  /nr Sprague/
Steinbach ...............  8 cm

Up to a foot of snow fell over parts
of  SE Manitoba Oct 4 2012.

The early snowfall, although an inconvenience, brought some much needed moisture to the region, which has been exceptionally dry over the past 6 weeks.  The snowfall brought relief to firefighting efforts in the Vita area, which had been evacuated just two days earlier by windswept wildfires.  In Winnipeg, about 8 mm of rain and wet snow was recorded at Winnipeg airport by evening, with 10-20 mm of precipitation reported across the city (19 mm at the Forks and 18 mm at my site in Charleswood)

Early Snowfalls over Winnipeg and southern MB

Snowfalls this early are unusual, but not unprecedented.  Winnipeg has seen measurable snow as early as Sept 20th when 1.5 cm was recorded in 1945. On Oct 2 1950, Winnipeg reported 12.7 cm of snow, while 13.8 cm of snow was recorded during a wintery blast on Oct 7-8, 1985. Heavier snowfalls have been recorded elsewhere over southern Manitoba during early October and September, especially over the higher elevations of SW Manitoba. Most recently, a record early snowstorm on Oct 5 2005 dumped 20-45 cm of snow over southwest MB, heaviest around the Pilot Mound area. October 1959 saw 3 major snowstorms dump over 100 cm of snow over SW Manitoba, in what was the snowiest month on record in Brandon. One of the earliest snowstorms ever recorded in southern MB occurred on Sept 12-13 1903, when 10-30 cm of snow fell over higher elevations of western MB near the SK border. 

Early season snowfalls in Winnipeg (since 1872)

Sep 20 1945 * ......  1.5 cm   (see note below)
Sep 24 1984 ........  5.8 cm
Sep 25 1872 ........ 18.3 cm
Sep 29 1908 ........  5.1 cm
Oct  1 1996 .......... 4.0 cm
Oct 2 1950 .......... 12.7 cm
Oct 4 1952 ........... 8.6 cm
Oct 5 1876 ........... 11.4 cm
Oct 5 2005 ............  7.0 cm 
Oct 7-8 1985 ......... 13.8 cm

* Officially, the date of this earliest snowfall is listed in the climate archives as September 19th 1945.  However, the snow actually fell in the pre-dawn hours of Sept 20 1945 from 4:20 am to "breakfast time" according to the Winnipeg Tribune. Prior to July 1961, precipitation that fell before 630 am was included in the previous day's precipitation total.