Manitoba

Flood Forecast for Manitoba 2019

Markosun Environment, Manitoba

Below normal temperatures in mid-April might not appeal to Manitobans, but the slower warming trend has its benefits in fighting floods.

Thanks to the cold, the melting process has been slowed. As a result, the anticipated flood level has been lowered to something on par with what the province experienced in 2011 — or even slightly less — and well below the 2009 level predicted earlier.

The revised forecast was released Tuesday afternoon.

Prior to that, the province was expecting the Red River to crest around 32.5 feet in the Red River Valley, south of Winnipeg. Now it should be closer to 30 feet.

Inside Winnipeg — which is protected by the 47-kilometre floodway that diverts part of the Red River’s flow around the east side of the city — the crest was expected to reach 20.5 feet at the James Avenue pumping station.

Now, officials are expecting it to be closer to 19.5 feet.

The crest of the Red River is expected at the border, in Emerson, between April 16 and 19, and in Winnipeg between April 20 and 23.

The province expects to begin using the floodway between April 12 and 14, a news release said.

South of the city, where there is no floodway, a warning has been issued all the way to the international border.

Provincial crews have been deployed in a number of communities to prepare for potential ring dike closures. A partial ring dike closure is currently underway at Emerson, but the community remains accessible by road.

As for other river systems prone to flooding, the province says the Assiniboine, Qu’Appelle and Souris river basins have peaked in all but a couple of locations.

Images from the 2011 flood

The towns shown are St. Jean Baptiste and Morris.  Both located south of Winnipeg.

 

 

 

 

 

Massive Manitoba snow maze vying for world record

Markosun Manitoba

300 truck-loads of snow used to build maze near St. Adolphe, Man.

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A gigantic Manitoba snow maze may be the biggest the world has ever seen.

The maze, located about 25 kilometres south of downtown Winnipeg near St. Adolphe, officially opened Saturday at A Maze in Corn.

“It’s been a huge excitement to build it,” said Clint Masse, who owns A Maze in Corn with his family and spent the last three weeks with a crew of nine building the structure.

The maze was created using roughly 300 truck-loads of snow, and features 1,300 metres of tightly packed snow walls.

And it’s big — really big.

Masse is hoping it’s big enough to break the world record. But beyond admitting the maze covers just over 2,300 square metres, he remained coy about its exact dimensions.

“We can’t say the exact square-footage because we’re trying to beat them,” he said, referencing the current Guinness World Record holder, a maze built in Thunder Bay in 2015.

 

Dang is it Cold Out There!

Markosun Manitoba, Weather

After a blistering hot summer us people in Manitoba must now face the cruel reality of our geographical circumstances. We must batten down the hatches and face the cold northern weather stoically and with audacious fortitude.

The first day of fall and the thermometer almost hits the freezing mark. Cold drizzle with intermittent snow pellets blasted by harsh north winds. Damn summer ends way too fast up here.

The Library Park Mist Fountain Blasted by the Winds

Crystal City Grain Elevator Fire

Markosun Manitoba

A devastating fire tore through Crystal City, Manitoba on Monday evening, reducing a grain elevator to ash and severely damaging a hardware store.

A 31-year-old man is recovering in hospital after sustaining burns. He was airlifted to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg and is in stable condition, a STARS helicopter service spokesperson said. Police say the man was working at the elevator at the time of the blaze.

An RCMP spokesperson said officers from the Crystal City detachment responded to the fire at around 6 p.m., after a caller reported reported hearing an explosion and seeing fire coming from the top of the elevator.

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The fire spread to the Cudmore Bros. Hardware building as well, which is around two blocks away from where the elevator was ablaze.

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Ice Road Truckers to the Rescue

Markosun Manitoba, Transportation

Ice road to Churchill complete; goods to arrive by Wednesday

The town of Churchill will be getting an early Christmas present this year.

A winter road link has been completed between Gillam and the northern community that lost its rail line in the spring due to severe flooding.

The distance from Gillam to Churchill is 300 kms or 175 miles.

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The ice road was a joint project between Polar Industries, Fox Lake Cree Nation and Churchill’s Remote Area Services.

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“The guys finished up late [Thursday] night and they’re on their way back out to Gillam so we can start our actual journey with freight on Sunday,” explained Polar Industries president Mark Kohaykewych. Polar Industries is featured on the popular TV series ‘Ice Road Truckers’.

“We’re doing a spiritual, traditional ceremony since we are crossing Fox Lake traditional land. We’ve been accepting a lot of freight the last week and the trucks are leaving to head up to Gillam for Sunday afternoon.”

Since making the announcement that the ice road would be built, Kohaykewych has continually stated he hoped the road would be ready for Christmas. Thanks to no huge snow dumps and cold conditions, the road is ready, though not for huge truckloads.

“We’re just starting off with two, we don’t want to go too heavy on this first journey. We definitely want the ground to harden up and we don’t want to be busting through any rivers or damaging any ice bridges that we’ve created,” Kohaykewych said. “We’re splitting the load between three cat trains, 20,000 pounds a piece.”

Cat Trains

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The ice road was necessitated by the loss of the rail line, which is still nowhere near ready to be used again. The very public battle between OmniTrax, which owns the line, and the federal government has been taken to court.

In the meantime, the ice road will be used to take much needed supplies to the remote northern town through the winter months.

“We’re cross-docking off of the transport trucks onto sleighs that we’ve manufactured and then pulling them with what the general public would know as dozers or cat trains,” Kohaykewych said. “I’m figuring we should be on the road between 30-36 hours.”

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Cat train in Alaska below

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Churchill is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World. It also has its own trains associated with Polar Bear tourism. The Tundra Buggy trains.

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