A number of highways are closed throughout southern Manitoba Friday morning after a low pressure system dumped dozens of centimetres of wet, heavy snow throughout the region and caused havoc on the roads.

Highway 1 was closed Thursday evening at both the Saskatchewan and Ontario borders. It has since reopened from Brandon to Saskatchewan. However, the Trans-Canada remains closed between Falcon Lake and the Ontario border, as well as between Brandon and Highway 34.

The Yellowhead Highway is also closed between Highway 50 near Woodside, to Minnedosa.

A number of other closures are in place as of 5:30 a.m. including:

  • Highway 13 from Highway 1 to the U.S. border.
  • Highway 2 is closed between Starbuck and St. Claude.
  • Highway 3 is closed between Sperling and Carman, from Carman to Winkler, and from Winkler to south junction of Highway 34.

To see current highway conditions, including more closures. go here.

Warnings remain in place

Many areas, including the City of Winnipeg, remain under a snowfall warning. 

Environment Canada says regions in the Interlake and the northern Red River Valley will continue to see heavy snowfall from lake effect streamers off of Lake Winnipeg early this morning. These streamers produce narrow bands of heavy snow with very poor visibilities. Potentially these streamers could produce over 30 cm of snow in some localities in the Interlake.

Winnipeg will likely see a further couple of centimetres by the time the snow concludes later today.

As well, snow falling near the Manitoba escarpment along the western edge of the Red River Valley will end early this morning.

Some areas of the Interlake are under a winter storm warning. Areas close to the lake have the potential to see a storm total of 30-40 cm of snow under the influence of these bands of snow.

In addition to the snow, wind gusts of 70 or 80 km/h continue to produce widespread poor visibilities in blowing snow over southern regions. These conditions are expected to improve by this afternoon as the system moves further east into Ontario.

The system is expected to exit Manitoba allowing snow and wind to ease later today

CURRENT WATCHES AND WARNINGS

This map is automatically updated from Environment Canada. Refresh the page to see the latest details. Areas in red are under severe snowfall or winter storm warnings.