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Global News
4 days ago
- Climate
- Global News
Active fire season expected to bring more smoky skies across Manitoba
Eastern Manitoba is under an air quality warning due to smoke from the nearby wildfires, and smoke from blazes in Saskatchewan is being blown over northern Manitoba. It's early in the wildfire season, but Environment Canada meteorologist Natalie Hasell says conditions are only going to get worse. 'Based on our current forecasts, it would not surprise me if things remain difficult,' says Hasell. 'That the season is going to be pretty active looks pretty sure at this point.' Hasell says the wildfire risk will stay high throughout the summer, and increase across the prairies in August. Ryan Ness, director of adaptation research at the Canadian Climate Institute, says climate change has made active fire seasons and smoky skies the norm for our summers. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'We're seeing those warmer, dryer winters,' says Ness. 'We're seeing less precipitation during the warmer seasons, we're seeing more lightning and thunderstorms even with the changing and warming climate.' Story continues below advertisement Seniors, young children, pregnant people, and people with heart or lung conditions are most susceptible to health complications due to wildfire smoke. They are advised to avoid strenuous activity outdoors when the air quality is poor. But Juliette Mucha, president and CEO of the Manitoba Lung Association, says even if you're healthy, the effects of smoke can catch up with you. 'You may not feel it now, or you may just have a little cough right now. But later on, years to come, days, weeks, that's where we can see the damage,' says Mucha. Mucha says breathing the fine particles in wildfire smoke can do damage equivalent to smoking several cigarettes. She advises keeping the air inside your home as clear as possible. 'Close your windows, and if you're able to, put your A/C on. If you have a fresh air intake, make sure that is off, recirculating just interior air.' She advises people who don't have air conditioning to go to a library or other public space that does. For those who do need to go outside in heavy smoke, an N-95 mask can filter out some of the harmful particles.
Winnipeg Free Press
02-05-2025
- Climate
- Winnipeg Free Press
Experts confirm twister touched down south of Winnipeg Wednesday
A cloudy sky in the village of Tourond, south of Winnipeg, quickly turned violent Wednesday, marking Manitoba's first tornado of the year. 'Nothing's going to happen. We have a super strong basement we can hide in,' says a girl in a video posted to Facebook that showed the tornado. The landspout tornado hit the community, on Highway 59 just south of Niverville, just after 5 p.m. Wednesday, leaving a small trail of dirt in its path, but causing no damage. A landspout, which is formed from the ground up, rather than from a rotating updraft within a thunderstorm cloud, generally doesn't cause a lot of damage. Natalie Hasell, of Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the tornado wasn't out of the ordinary. She said conditions were 'ripe' for cold core funnel clouds, which can — but often don't — turn into tornadoes. 'The general conditions around what happened (Wednesday), cold core funnel is very typical under these conditions,' she said. 'Occasionally a cold-core funnel will reach the ground.' Dave Sills, director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in London, Ont., said it was an early-season touchdown — only the second twister to ever touch down in Manitoba in the month of April. The first one happened near Altona in 1980. The project tracks all tornadoes in Canada. He said the tornado didn't do any damage, and only kicked up dirt in a field, based on a video sent to the university. Reeves for De Salaberry and Hanover both said they hadn't received reports of damage. Sills said Manitoba averages about 8.5 tornadoes a year, but cautioned the early touchdown isn't a sign that it will be a busy season. The university team classified the tornado as EF0-Default on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the lowest possible rating, with help from videos posted to social media. The classification would mean wind speeds were likely low, but still greater than 90 kilometres per hour. 'Any tornado is dangerous, even an EF0 can put a two-by-four through a wall,' said Sills. He said the rotation of smaller tornadoes can't be picked up on radar, which makes them difficult to predict. Hasell said for most people, a funnel cloud that quickly disappears and one that touches down and becomes destructive look the same, and that people should stay safe. 'Unless you're very sure about the situation, I would prefer that people would stay away and take shelter,' said Hasell. The strongest tornado in the southeast area of Manitoba happened near St. Malo in 1977. Two people were killed. The tornado was classified as F4 on the former Fujita scale. F4 tornadoes have wind speeds of at least 333 km/h. Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. The strongest twister in Manitoba history happened in Elie in 2007. It reached F5 on the Fujita scale and had winds of greater than 400 km/h. The path of destruction was more than 5.5 kilometres long and 300 metres wide. Despite it lifting up cars and houses, nobody was killed. The Elie tornado is the only F5 or EF5 tornado recorded in Canada. The Tourond tornado was only Canada's second twister of the year after another one, classified as EF0, touched down near Rolling Hills, Alta. on April 12. The Northern Tornadoes Project is investigating another potential tornado that happened north of Montreal on April 29. If confirmed, it would make the Tourond tornado the third of the year. fpcity@
