Windy rain pelts communities as southern Manitoba braces for snow

Whatever window of opportunity there was for barbecuing and outside fun this May long weekend is gone, as communities across southern Manitoba get pummelled by rain and winds Sunday afternoon.

Between 20 and 30 millimetres of rain is expected to turn to five to 10 centimetres of ice pellets and then snow by Sunday evening. Northeast winds gusted to roughly 80 kilometres an hour as temperatures in Winnipeg fell to the 0 C range in the afternoon.

Environment Canada has issued a warning to the city, which says winds could gust right up to 90 km/h. The province has issued warnings for Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba, which say that wind could raise levels by five feet or more.

Meteorologist Justin Hobson says the wind will continue throughout the day.

"And another issue will be the heavy rain," he said.

"So once the heavy rain ... You know, it's already been occurring and the ground is saturated, so you add the winds to that. It might actually take some trees down, too."

Meanwhile, communities across southern Manitoba have been plagued by rolling power outages Hydro said could get worse with evening snow and high winds.

Gimli erosion fears

Gimli Mayor Randy Woroniuk said people in the community are worried waterfront properties could be damaged from high waves on windswept Lake Winnipeg Sunday.

"I'm sure there is going to be concern about shoreline erosion and we do have a bit of a concern by the library," he said. "We've created some sand dikes."

Woroniuk said the dikes will prevent rain from draining and flooding along Fourth Avenue.

Over at Winnipeg Beach, Judy Werier's cabin and deck were damaged after a tree crashed down from the wind.

Area resident Laurie Hoogstraaten reported seeing a sideways-flying pelican swept up in the winds.

"It's taking my breath away, literally," she said of the wind.

"I was fighting the wind and I was going to talk to you from the beach but it's absolutely impossible because the wind is blowing so strongly. And I just saw a pelican fly sideways. Completely sideways."

On Sunday, the overnight low in Winnipeg is –3 C.

Snow will continue until Monday morning, but is expected to clear later in the day, and the high will only rise to 4 C.

But the miserable May weather won't last. Sunshine is in the forecast all week, and by next weekend, the high is expected to hit 24 C on both Saturday and Sunday.