Manitoba Merv gives his prediction for winter following nine-hour blizzard

Manitoba Merv gives his prediction for winter following nine-hour blizzard

Manitoba’s spring predicting groundhog may have been affected by the extreme winter weather much of Manitoba has been experiencing.

Manitoba Merv saw his shadow after Tuesday’s blizzard, which Environment Canada said went on for nine hours, the longest since 1997.

This means the province is in for six more weeks of winter.

Merv has been predicting the arrival of spring in Manitoba since 1993.

Jacques Bourgeois, the promotion and marketing coordinator for Oak Hammock Marsh, said Merv is pretty good at his springtime guesses with a 98 per cent accuracy rate.

Bourgeois also said being a puppet has its advantages.

“He never dies. He’s always going to be there and always predicting the weather for us in Manitoba.”

Merv seeing his shadow comes as most of the province is under an extreme cold weather warning.

Environment Canada warnings issued on Tuesday said an Arctic ridge of high pressure is bringing wind chills of near -40 C in the morning that will moderate slightly during the day.

Wednesday’s weather is forecasted to repeat overnight with even colder temperatures going into Thursday. The weekend weather looks to warm up.

The extreme cold followed a blizzard overnight Monday into Tuesday that forced schools and roads to close. Environment Canada said the Winnipeg airport received about 10 centimetres of snow over the nine-hour storm. It noted the average blizzard only goes for four or five hours.

Michael Cantor, manager of street maintenance for the City of Winnipeg, said snow-clearing operations are underway clearing regional streets, bus routes, and collector streets, as well as some sidewalks and pathways on a priority system. Back lane clearing began at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Cantor said high winds hampered the snow-clearing efforts for the approximate 250 pieces of heavy equipment on city streets, but expects street operations to be finished overnight with back lanes finished by Thursday night.

More snow is in the forecast, but Cantor said there is ample room for it at the city’s three open snow dumps and will be tackling some large windrows on city streets.

“We are removing windrows on regional streets at certain locations but we are also reducing some high piles citywide to improve sightlines for drivers and pedestrians,” Cantor said.