Snowfall Warnings remain in effect as of Thursday evening for the Pembina and Red River Valleys, as well as all of Southeastern Manitoba as a late season winter storm continues to impact the region.

“It seems only our finely feathered friends flittering about our backyards are enjoying today’s winter storm.” said CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner Thursday afternoon. “I have a couple of bird feeders in my backyard, and they have been the place to be today after being freshly filled with sunflower seed.”

Sumner explained the slow moving system, which has been blanketing the region with snowfall since early Thursday morning, will stick around until at least Friday morning. Early estimates from PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers indicate 10-15cm of snow has fallen already, with more on the way.

Environment Canada indicates an additional 5-10cm will fall in the Morden-Winkler-Altona-Emerson- Morris region by the time the system pulls out of the area some time Friday. Areas closer to the Ontario border could see an additional 15-25cms by Friday afternoon.

“This has certainly been a high impact event, and has played out pretty closely to what we expected from a timing perspective,” noted Sumner. “The question on everyone’s mind is when will all this snow melt? The short answer is by the end of the weekend when temperatures begin to climb back to seasonal for this time of year. Daytime highs will recover to near zero Sunday, and then head back above freezing to start the week. Right now the long range forecast looks like daytime highs Tuesday through Friday will be between 5 and 7, which is near normal for this time of year.”

For those keeping an eye on the Red River, he noted this system is also dropping significant snowfall in a similar range on the U.S. side of the Valley.

“One of the stories that will be followed next week, for sure, is how this latest precipitation event will impact Spring flood forecasts.”