Wild weather in Winnipeg on Thursday evening included coin-sized hail and flash flooding as a severe thunderstorm swept its way through the province.
The city saw 17 millimetres of rain, Environment Canada meteorologist Justin Shaer said.
“We’ve also had hail of varying sizes throughout Winnipeg and the Red River Valley as well,” Shaer told Global Winnipeg.
“The largest we have a report of was in the city, in the Linden Woods area, of toonie size, … so quite sizable.”
The good news, however, is that the storm system will likely contribute to the fight against wildfires raging near Fort McMurray, Alta., as well as — hopefully — the fires that continue to burn closer to home in Manitoba.
“As this system wraps up and tracks into northern Manitoba, it does look like it should hit the (fires) near Cranberry Portage and in the Flin Flon area, to at least help aid in some of that.”
Although the extreme weather wrapped up Thursday night, Shaer said the province isn’t out of the woods just yet, with more rain in the forecast for Friday and a good chance of more thunderstorms as well.
“We will see unsettled conditions continue across southern Manitoba, where more severe weather activity is possible,” he said, “especially starting in the Parklands region, around Dauphin, Riding Mountain, and into Westman in the afternoon, and then moving into the Red River Valley in the late evening hours and overnight.”
