Many local residents are, to put it mildly, exhausted by the weather we’ve endured so far this winter and convinced it’s the worst January we’ve had in years. But do the numbers back that up?

Well, it depends on which statistics you’re taking into account.

Based on stats from 2005 to 2015, the average high temperature in January was -9ºC and the average low temperature -19ºC.1

January 2022 has been colder than this average by about three degrees, which may not sound like much but is certainly significant. This year’s average high was -12.8ºC and the average low was -22.2ºC.2

The average number of snowfall days in January is 13.7.3 This can be a deceptive statistic, as we had slightly less than that, with only ten days seeing snow.4

However, the intensity of those snowfall days has been a lot worse this year, with sky-high amounts of snow falling on us.

The average snowfall in Winnipeg in January is 237 millimetres.5 This year, January saw an astonishing 432 millimetres of snow.6 January’s snowfall alone almost reached the total annual average snowfall rate of 479 millimetres.3 And a significant amount of new snow has already fallen in the first 11 days of February.

The massive amount of snow is creating problems nearly across the board.

Niverville’s Mayor Myron Dyck says that the town has created an email address specifically for residents to report snow-clearing issues (snowclearing@whereyoubelong.ca). These emails sent here go directly to the town’s Operations Department.

Mayor Dyck says that Niverville’s budget for snow-clearing works a little differently than some other towns.

“Unlike the City of Winnipeg, which has a specific line item for snow removal, our budget is more general in that we have a budget for Public Works,” Dyck says. “So if Public Works spends more money on snow, then they have less money to spend on other things.”

It remains to be seen how this may affect the town’s finances and operations for the rest of 2022.

Among the few businesses that have thrived this weather are towing companies. The owner of Niverville Towing, Justin Nadeau, says this year has been “stressful, but pretty good.”

Niverville Towing has a large coverage area from the southern edge of Winnipeg all the way to the U.S. border. Nadeau says that he has five drivers and trucks right now and that they are experiencing their busiest winter in at least three to five years.

On an average, sunny winter day Nadeau says he receives three to four calls from those needing assistance.

On February 11 alone, as of 10:00 a.m., Niverville Towing had already received 32 calls for extraction from the ditch.

Nadeau says that his team works through the night, and often has to continue through the next day after a blizzard. Although he is proud to say that despite the conditions, his crew is still generally able to get to most calls within the hour.

“Of course we prioritize stranded motorists,” he says.

The weather and road conditions have been so treacherous that Nadeau says he spent nine hours last week on one call that was less than 50 kilometres round trip.

Although it seems hard to believe, southeastern Manitoba is still considered to be in a state of moderate to severe drought. This stretches back to a long period of arid conditions that plagued our region throughout 2021.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) indicates that although January’s precipitation has not solved the problem, it has allowed for some slight improvement to the drought conditions.

The AAFC says that if our current snow melts slowly enough, it may help our drought conditions somewhat for the upcoming growing season.8 But if the snow and ice melt too quickly, there is a chance of flooding.

According to forecasters south of the border, the chance of major flooding where the Red River enters Manitoba is currently at 65 percent.9 Manitoba has not yet made a flood forecast of its own.

So is there a plus side to all this miserable weather? Our children in school may say yes. Friday, February 11 marks the seventh weather-related closure to all of the Hanover School Division’s schools this winter, an unprecedented state of affairs.

No matter how this winter has affected you, we can be confident that it will be one that we all remember for a long, long time.