Plenty of rain splashed down in Manitoba in May, more could be coming in June

A pedestrian walks with an umbrella in the rain in downtown Winnipeg on May 24, 2024. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

It likely isn’t a surprise for many Manitobans, but it was a wet month of May in the province.

The latest data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) shows a number of areas in Manitoba were doused constantly, leading to rainfall totals that were far above normal.

“There are many areas that are currently reporting twice as much precipitation or more compared to what they would normally get in the month of May,” said Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with ECCC.

In the Red River Valley, Portage la Prairie was the wettest area with 121 millimetres as of May 30, Winnipeg and Emerson both had around 116 mm, and Brandon saw just over 107 mm of precipitation.

Taking a closer look at Winnipeg, Hasell said not only did the city get a lot of rain, but there were several days that got over 10 mm of precipitation.

“If we count the number of days where we got precipitation above 10 mm in a day, it looks like we have seven of those days, whereas, based on the 1991 to 2020 Canadian Climate Normals for Winnipeg, the month of May normally only has about two of those days.”

On top of the rain, Hasell noted May had significant thunderstorms, and Winnipeggers saw the largest amount of hail in recent years.

However, no rain records were broken in Winnipeg, as it was only the 17th wettest May on record.

As for what to expect in June, Hasell said the latest forecast released on Thursday shows temperatures will be above average and precipitation will be below average, but that doesn’t mean there can’t still be a lot of rainfall.

“June is our wettest month…if we look at how much precipitation Winnipeg normally gets, we normally get 74.3 mm,” she said. “So I expect the variability will continue. There will be days where we have some showers, some thunderstorms, and other days where maybe we don’t. So it will be a very variable time, as is often the case in summer, especially if it’s already rained and rained this much. There’s clearly a local source of moisture available now for anything that develops over the area.”