Winter is coming: First storm of the season forecast for southern Manitoba

Brace yourself Manitoba, the first winter storm of the season is coming.

A special weather statement is out for the southern part of the province, from westto east, including Winnipeg and Brandon, while some areas closer to the Saskatchewan border are under a winter storm watch.

Environment Canada says the southern half of the province will see one more day of mild weather before it's hit with winter storm weather.

Wednesday is expected to be a messy day, with a rain-snow mix blanketing the region, followed byperiods of snowfall later in the day and continuing into Thursday.

Between 10 to 20 centimetres of snow is expected in total for most of southern Manitoba, while places like Dauphin, Russell and Roblin could see 25 centimetres of snow or more.

Rain is expected to turn to snow late Wednesday, followed by periods of snow all day Thursday.

Manitobans have had unseasonably warm October and November temperatures, allowing golf courses to remain openlonger than usual.

Though the first week of November 2020 also saw high temperatures in parts of Manitoba (Winnipeg had a high of 19 C on Nov. 8, 2020, Statistics Canada says), the province had also hadsnow by the end of Octoberthat year.

In years past, temperatures have dropped well below 0 degrees in early November. On Nov. 9, 2019, the Winnipeg airport weather station saw highs of 2C and lows of10 C, while 2018 was even colder, with a high of6 C and low of 13 C at the Winnipeg airport, Statistics Canada says.

The normal Winnipeg temperatures for Nov. 9 are a high of 0 C and a low of8 C, Environment Canada says.

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