A team of storm researchers from an Ontario university are in southeastern Manitoba to investigate the deluge of rain that fell on the region last week.
The storm, which dumped more than 100 millimetres of rain in just a few hours on areas including Steinbach and Niverville, was described by an Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist as the equivalent of two months’ worth of rain all at once.
Researchers from Western University’s Canadian Severe Storms Lab are on the ground gathering data and evidence in a part of the province where many municipalities are still cleaning up the aftermath of overland flooding caused by the storm.
Research meteorologist Simon Eng told 680 CJOB’s The Start that severe weather has been resulting in more damage to homes and other infrastructure across the country, and that Manitoba has its own unique challenges.
“One of the core reasons that southern Manitoba specifically has significant challenges with drainage is simply because of how flat the terrain is,” Eng said.
“Those impacts, and where the most severe impacts are, will help tell us when you have this amount of rainfall, how does the topography in southern Manitoba respond to those particular types of rainfall amounts?”
One goal of the research, Eng said, is to provide data that will help communities better prepare for future severe weather and its impacts.
“What are the mechanisms that are generating damage, generating impacts to private homes, to commercial businesses and so on?
“(We want to) get a much better sense of how we can respond to these events in the future.”
