Sweet heat Winnipeg sets September weather record as outdoor businesses see sizzling sales By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 28, 2021

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This article was published 27/09/2021 (1088 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Leaves are changing colour and kids are in school, but it feels like mid-summer to Steve Wood.

The director of golf operations at St. Boniface Golf Club is still seeing a large number of customers. The club typically sees around 5,000 rounds of golf in September. This year, there have been about 6,500 games in 28 days.

“We’re still packed, right from our first tee time… to the end of the day,” Wood said. “The daylight is shrinking, but we’re… putting through a lot of players.”

He attributes the course’s recent success, in part, to the warm weather.

“For us, to be reaching the temperatures we’re reaching currently, it just hasn’t slowed down,” he said.

This is not Winnipeg’s hottest September on record, but it’s easily in the Top 10, said Natalie Hasell, a meteorologist for Environment Canada.

The daily high hasn’t dipped below 14 C all month in Winnipeg. On Tuesday, the city broke its daily weather record for Sept. 28 at just over 29 C, beating the 28.9 C records of 1897 and 1905.

“We… see a lot of variability in the fall,” Hasell said. “As systems cross the region, we see huge temperature changes.”

The average temperature in Winnipeg this month is 15.3 C, Hasell said. It was 17.6 C in 2009, which holds the current record.

Guido Cerasani, owner of Shooters Family Golf Centre, is enjoying the weather — and the business it’s bringing.

“The temperatures we are experiencing this September are very much in line with the long-term trend in our temperatures… which are very much related to climate change.” — Danny Blair, co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre

There’s been a 25 to 50 per cent increase in daily sales at the business on north Main Street.

“We’re seeing record numbers in golf just because of COVID,” he said. “We had a great early spring, and now we’re having a great fall, so all the cards are in the favour of golf in Manitoba.”

The warm temperatures also mean folks are still craving patio dates, Cerasani said.

“The best part about it now is there’s no wasps,” he said.

Assiniboine Park has been busy this month, said Laura Cabak, communications manager for the Assiniboine Park Conservancy.

The zoo has seen a 50 per cent increase in visitors, she added.

“Some of that is likely due to weather, but there are other variables at play,” she said, adding Manitoba was in a different stage in the COVID-19 pandemic last September.

Trail usage is up, as it’s been since the beginning of the pandemic, said Anders Swanson, executive director of the Winnipeg Trails Association.

However, September’s heat likely isn’t playing a big role, he said.

“(It’s) usually having to do with infrastructure and (people’s) own personal lives,” he said.

Danny Blair, co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre, said in Winnipeg, September has warmed at a rate of 0.44 C per decade, meaning it’s warmed over 2 C since 1970.

“The temperatures we are experiencing this September are very much in line with the long-term trend in our temperatures… which are very much related to climate change,” he wrote in an email.

Even so, no particular spell of weather is caused by climate change, he said.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca