Soaring temperatures make for sizzling Sunday

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Intense and potentially dangerous heat gripped southern Manitoba on Sunday, smashing a century-old weather record in Winnipeg and forcing the cancellation of the Manitoba Marathon.

Temperatures soared to 37 C (45 C with the humidity) by mid-afternoon. The day quickly blasted past the record all-time high for the day of 33 C set in 1888.

A heat warning was issued by Environment Canada shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.

While organizers of the Manitoba Marathon anticipated high temperatures, conditions exceeded plans put in place to mitigate the heat.

The event, which had over 6,000 participants, began as scheduled at IG Field at 7 a.m., but less than two hours later, the race was officially called off.

Organizers said in a statement that the decision was made in consultation with the marathon’s medical team and executive director.

Many runners continued on with the race, but did so at their own risk, organizers said.

According to Environment Canada, hot weather can be expected to remain a little longer, though temperatures won’t reach the same sweltering highs experienced Sunday.

A ridge of high pressure passing through southern Manitoba can be blamed for the current conditions, Environment Canada meteorologist Danielle Desjardins explained.

“This (heat is) going to be only a day or two, so that’s a good thing,” she said.

The hot and humid air mass is expected to result in thunderstorms moving into southern Manitoba on Sunday evening.

It’s not likely this summer will set any records for above-30 days, considering May was relatively chilly compared to other years, but Desjardins said it was too early to say for sure.

“I would say if this trend continues, it’s going to be more of an average year weather-wise,” he said.

In preparation for the warm weekend, the city set up hydration stations at three sites across the city late last week. Leisure centres were accessible for people looking to cool down. Pools and city spray pads also offered relief from the heat.

At the Fort Rouge Park spray pad, six-year-old Samrat Mishra waited impatiently on Sunday for a friend. As she arrived, he tutted. Adjusting his sunglasses, he shook his head disapprovingly and sprinted off toward the cool water.

“I want to give him some outdoor activity — at home, he either tries to watch TV, or do something on the phone, I don’t want him doing that, so that’s why I thought, ‘Let’s take him to the park,’” Samrat’s father, Ashish Mishra, told the Free Press while watching his son Sunday.

“I’m quite used to it like this … it’s the cold that’s something we’re not used to,” he said, having immigrated to Winnipeg in 2019 from the lowlands of Nepal. He’s come to the spray pad and adjacent park on River Avenue every summer since and praised it as a benefit for the nearby community, not all of whom have air conditioning.

“From inside your house, the weather looks not too gloomy, so it should be nice to do a walk or something like that,” he said.

“But as soon as I came out, I thought ‘Oh, no. The humidity is too high.’”

A life-long Winnipegger, Jessica Constable said she’d be concerned to see climate change result in more extremely hot summer days, while she visited the Osborne-area spray pad with her partner Alex and their one-year-old son Oscar.

“Just for our kids and (their) well-being, and just the amount of energy having to go into our homes with the air conditioning, and for those of us who don’t have air conditioning, the effort that we’ll have to put forward to actually cool off is more than I was used to when I was a kid,” she said.

The family loves their time outside, and said they were thankful to get out of their home and to a spray pad.

“I think they’re great, I’m so thankful that we don’t have to wait to get into an outdoor pool or a wading pool or anything like that,” she said.

“I really like that this is just easy … especially for toddlers, I think it’s really great, because going to the park is a big part of our day usually.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca