Severe storms swept across large parts of Manitoba from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, leaving a trail of damage and a major cleanup behind them. Some areas were described as having been clobbered by the weather, with the worst of it striking overnight. The storms were powerful enough to disrupt daily life across huge stretches of the province, and by Wednesday many communities were dealing with the aftermath of one of the harder hitting rounds of weather they have seen recently.
Among the most striking features of the storms was the size of the hail. In some places, the hail was as large as tennis balls, a scale that can cause real damage to vehicles, roofs and crops. Alongside the hail came strong winds, with gusts reaching around 100 kilometres per hour in areas like Brandon. Winnipeg was not spared either, recording wind gusts that came close to that same level, adding to the strain on the province.
The scale of the damage was reflected in the response on Wednesday. The cleanup was so large that some regions decided to close schools, keeping students home rather than trying to operate normally in the wake of the storms. That step underlined how widely the weather had been felt, with the disruption reaching far enough that local authorities judged it safer to suspend classes while crews worked through the mess left behind.
The Interlake District stood out as one of the hardest hit areas. Schools there were among those closed, and there were reports of some schools actually being flooded. The combination of closures and flooding pointed to a district facing more than just a passing storm, with water getting into buildings and forcing a pause to normal routines while the extent of the damage was assessed and dealt with.
The storms also landed on parts of the province that had already been soaking up rain in recent days. Areas such as Swan River had been receiving a lot of precipitation before this latest round arrived, leaving the ground saturated and the risk of flooding higher. For those communities, the new storms added to an already wet stretch, compounding the pressure from water that had been building up over several days.
Looking at what comes next, Environment Canada indicated that more weather warnings were possible on Wednesday. The key difference was in their severity. Rather than the red warnings that had been issued overnight as the worst of the storms moved through, any further alerts were expected to be yellow warnings, a sign that while unsettled weather could continue, the most dangerous conditions appeared to be easing as the day went on.
For residents caught in the flooding, the experience was harrowing. One person described staying home through the night without fear at first, only to watch the water reach right up to the door and begin coming underneath it, then push into the garage. When help arrived to bring them out, they were relieved to leave. Their account captured how, beyond the hail and wind, the flooding in parts of the province turned the storms into a direct threat to people's homes.