A downpour of rain in May backed up sewers, flooded basements and saturated outdoor fields and flower beds — dampening the spirits of athletes and gardeners across southern Manitoba.
Winnipeg and the Red River Valley saw about double the normal May amount of precipitation last month, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
All that rainy weather has left baseball teams in Winnipeg scrambling to reschedule games and practices just as their season begins, says the chair of the Winnipeg Minor Baseball Association.
“Typically teams would have been playing their ninth or 10th game this week, and they’re probably playing Game 6 or 7 instead,” said Dan Cox, who is also president of Red River Valley Baseball, a youth baseball association for the area in and around northeast Winnipeg.
The diamond at the Henri Constant Field on Kildare Avenue, where Cox coaches, was covered in puddles Tuesday, including a soggy outfield.
“We got a few emails today for a number of cancellations,” Cox told CBC Tuesday. “I would be very, very surprised if there are any games going on tonight.”
Last month was a particularly wet May for southern Manitoba, Environment Canada meteorologist Stephen Berg confirms.
“Many places were in the top 10, top 20 in terms of wettest Mays on record. Brandon, for instance, had 114 millimetres, and the normal is about 60. Red River Valley, Winnipeg was about double the monthly mean.”
That’s continued as June begins, with parts of southern Manitoba getting more rain this past Sunday and Monday.
Spring or early summer rainstorms aren’t abnormal, said Berg, but “this has been quite interesting, that’s for sure.”
He did say, however, that southern Manitoba is expected to be a little drier over the next few weeks.
That may be good news for people worried about basement flooding.
A spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg said there were 57 reports of sewers backing up last week. The city didn’t receive any reports involving basement flooding, but the city’s numbers only account for people who make reports directly to them.
Preparing for mosquitoes
City crews have also been working overtime hours this past week to larvicide standing water sites to prevent the explosion of mosquitoes.
“We do have … a priority system for listings and we’re seeing, you know, some of our lower-priority listings are starting to have larvae as well,” said city insect control superintendent David Wade.
The city’s larviciding program uses longer-lasting insecticides compared to a decade ago, Wade said, which means workers don’t have to treat an area after every rainfall.
As the weather gets warmer, there will be more mosquitoes buzzing around, but Wade said he’s confident the city will keep the number of mosquitoes at a “reasonable” level through its larvicide program.
Since on average, mosquitoes only need about one inch of water to lay eggs, people can help by pumping excess water from their yards, changing the water in their rain barrels or bird baths, or using insecticide on surface water like rain barrels, he said.
Meanwhile, the rain has also created delays for landscaping companies trying to complete jobs, said Jordan Hiebert, co-owner of Lacoste Garden Centre.
However, for any gardeners who may be concerned all this rainfall may be too much, Hiebert said plants are meant to handle it.
“If you have a wet garden, but it’s well drained, you should be OK. Your plants won’t be troubled by it. They can take the rain. They can take moisture, because it will dry.”
As for the baseball players, Cox said it takes about two to three days for a diamond to dry up before it’s safe enough for a team to play.
People who take care of the diamonds can use rakes to move the standing water onto the grass and shop vacuums to suck up water, he said.
But for “the kids that are four to nine years old, it’s got to be very disappointing for them and their parents to not be able to get out and play as much as they can,” he said.
For disc sport players at the ultimate fields in south Winnipeg’s Maple Grove Park, it’s the same soggy story.
“One of the best things about ultimate is that you don’t need very much to play,” said Nigel Batchelor, manager of operations for the Manitoba Organization of Disc Sports.
“You just need cleats and a disc, but one thing we do need is a safe playing surface, and that’s where the rain has really been a challenge so far.”
Batchelor said the ultimate season usually lasts 16 weeks, but because of the rain, the organization has had to condense the season by playing doubleheaders or scheduling matches on weekends or nights when they don’t normally play.
“Every day we have to make a weather call and decide whether we’re playing,” Batchelor said.