Weather trends of 2017

2017 was a fluctuating year to say the least.

A Senior Climatologist with Environment Canada says southern Manitoba might have had the best weather this year in all of Canada. David Phillips says that was especially the case in summer when weekends were dry and mosquitoes were nowhere to be found. By comparison, central Canada's summer was missing in action, while Saskatchewan experienced record drought.

Phillips acknowledges that 2017 did not have very memorable weather in southern Manitoba, for good or bad reasons. He notes however one of the more memorable was the Mackenzie Clipper that brought bitterly cold weather to the Prairies in mid-January, which was then followed by a mid-winter thaw.

This abnormally cold January was then followed by fluctuating temperatures, a blizzard, flooding in St. Adolphe, and eventually lead to warm weather problems in February for Festival Du Voyageur.

There was also the storm in northern Manitoba on March 6th and 7th. Phillips recalls it came from the United States, into eastern Saskatchewan and then hit parts of western Manitoba and up into Flin Flon, Thompson and Churchill, shutting down schools in some communities.

"One person told me they couldn't remember ever schools closed because of weather in Flin Flon and Thompson and that one, it did," he says. "And then, of course, it was like a moonscape up there in Churchill."

Spring break provided warm enough temperatures for Winnipeggers to experience it without a jacket. We didn't see much flooding in the city, but the early month of April was detrimental for the RM's of Dufferin, Grey, La Brogquerie, Two Borders, Carmen, and the town of Swan River. Snowflakes as big as manna appeared late April.

By springtime in May geese already began returning to the province and 14 days of rain in June ushered in the beautiful summer of above normal temperatures.

Mid September introduced record breaking highs because of a low pressure system in the northern prairies. October 26th was the first day of snow making its appearance due to a pushing Alberta Clipper storm. A similar event occured November 29th with another Alberta clipper with 50 - 80 km wind.

Phillips suggests another top weather story this year in Manitoba ended up being the non-event. He says with 100 centimetres of snow in the Red River Valley during the first 50 days of winter, it appeared flooding was imminent. But with only 30 centimetres of snow the last 100 days of winter, that threat never materialized.