Last year was the second-warmest on record in Winnipeg.
The mean temperature in 2024 was 5.3 C, only one-tenth of a degree below the record set in 1987.
“It was an overall warm year,” Danielle Desjardins, a meteorologist at Environment Canada, said Friday.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Robert Cockshott takes advantage of the warmer than usual weather on Dec. 27 by running in shorts at Assiniboine Park. The temperatures through March are expected to be nearer to normal, which is to say, non-shorts weather for most.
She said Winnipeg’s near-record was mostly the result of a warm fall and winter leading up to 2025.
Portage la Prairie, Emerson, Sprague, The Pas and Churchill all set records for their warmest mean temperatures last year.
Sprague is located in the Rural Municipality of Piney. Reeve Wayne Anderson said the warm weather has made the snowmobile trails season much shorter.
“(It’s) kind of disheartening for us,” he said, noting volunteers prepare and maintain the trails.
The Riley Family Duck Pond at Assiniboine Park and the Winter Park at The Forks both closed because of warm temperatures recently before reopening. One section of the Nestaweya River Trail has opened.
Forecasts for January through March call for near-normal temperatures for most of Manitoba. Temperatures for northeastern Manitoba are forecast to be slightly above normal.
The next few nights will be cold ones in Winnipeg, Desjardins said.
The City of Winnipeg is reminding people to stay safe during expected cold temperatures, recommending in a news release Thursday to dress appropriately for the weather and “winterize” vehicles and homes. People can warm up in city leisure centres and libraries during cold weather.
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