Geography and climate of Winnipeg

Winnipeg, Manitoba lies at the bottom of the valley of the Red River and has an extremely flat topography. There are no substantial hills in the city or its vicinity. The city is relatively isolated; the closest city with a metropolitan population of over 1 million, (Twin cities), is approximately 700 km (435 mi) southeast and the closest city with a metro population of over 100,000 (Fargo) is approximately 358 km (222 mi) south. Downtown Winnipeg is centred at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street about 1 km (0.62 mi) from The Forks of the Red and Assiniboine River. From this intersection, reputed to be the windiest in Canada (and widely recognized as the most famous intersection in Canada), all roads radiate outwards.

The Red River Valley's climate allows Manitoba to be Canada's largest producer of sunflower seed.

Downtown Winnipeg is the financial heart of the city, and covers an area of about 1 sq mi (2.6 km²) which is large for a city this size. Surrounding the downtown area are various residential neighbourhoods. Urban development spreads in all directions from downtown but is greatest to the south and west, and has tended to follow the course of the Red and the Assiniboine, the two major rivers. The urbanized area in Winnipeg is about 25 km (16 mi) from east to west and 20 km (12 mi) from north to south, although there is still much land available for development within the city limits.

Areas of Winnipeg include Downtown/Exchange District, Chinatown, The Forks, Fort Rouge/Crescentwood, River Heights, Tuxedo, Charleswood, St. James-Assiniboia, The West End, Weston, Wolseley, North End, Elmwood, East Kildonan, Winnipeg, West Kildonan, Winnipeg, Old Kildonan, North Kildonan, Winnipeg, St. Boniface, St. Vital, Fort Garry, St. Norbert, and Transcona.

Fort Rouge, Manitoba is a suburb of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg is known for its urban forest particularly its beautiful elm trees. The two major parks in the city, Assiniboine Park and Kildonan Park, are both located in the suburbs. The major commercial areas are Polo Park (West End and St. James) Kildonan Crossing (Transcona and East Kildonan), South St. Vital, and Garden City (West Kildonan). The main cultural and nightlife areas are the Exchange District, The Forks, Osborne Village and Corydon Village (both in Fort Rouge), Sargent and Ellice Avenues (West End) and Old St. Boniface.

Winnipeg seen from the air.

The city uses the grid system for streets although there are several different grids in place which correspond to old Red River Lots and the meandering courses of the rivers. This creates some irregular intersections. As a result many visitors find it difficult to get around in Winnipeg. There is no absolute numbering system in place but usually street addresses become higher the farther one moves away from either river. For example west of the Red River street addresses will increase as one heads west, but east of the river they will increase as one heads east. In general avenues run east and west and streets north and south. Unlike many cities in North America, all streets are named, not numbered. Of interest, many of the main thoroughfares in Winnipeg are extremely wide due to the spring soil conditions and the historical use of the Red River ox cart which created wide ruts in the (then) muddy roads. Portage Avenue has four lanes of traffic in each direction plus a central boulevard for much of its run through Winnipeg.

The Red River near downtown Winnipeg.

Because of its flat topography and substantial snowfall, Winnipeg is subject to severe flooding. The Red River reached its greatest flood height in 1826, and this event still remains the highest flood stage of the last two hundred years. Another large flood occurred in 1950, which caused millions of dollars in damages and thousands of evacuations. This flood prompted the Government of Maninitoba, under former Premier Dufferin Roblin, to build the Red River Floodway (sometimes colloquially referred to as Duff's Ditch), a 49 km (30 mi) long diversion channel that protects Winnipeg from flooding. Other related water diversion projects farther away from Winnipeg include the Portage Diversion (also known as the Assiniboine River Floodway) and the Shellmouth Reservoir. The flood control system prevented flooding in 1974 and 1979 when water levels neared record levels. However, in the 1997 Red River Flood, water threatened the city's relatively unprotected southwest corner. Flood control dikes were reinforced and raised using sandbags and the threat was averted. Winnipeg suffered limited damage compared to cities without flood control structures, such as Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Climate

A Winnipeg street after a snow storm.

Winnipeg lies in the middle of the North American continent on a low-lying, flat plain. Due to its location in the Great Plains (Canadian Prairies), and its distance from both mountains and oceans, it has an extreme humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb), in that there are great differences between summer and winter temperatures. The openness of the prairies leaves Winnipeg exposed to numerous weather systems including cold Arctic high pressure systems, known as the Polar high. From December through February the maximum daily temperature exceeds 0 °C (32 °F), on average, for only 10 days and the minimum daily temperature falls below −20 °C (−4 °F) on 49 days. Cold weather and snow will occasionally extend into April, although in general the winter weather begins to moderate in late February or early March. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Winnipeg was −47.8 °C (−54 °F), on December 24, 1879. The coldest since then was −45 °C (−49 °F) on February 18, 1966 and the coldest temperature during the last 25 years (1984) was −41.7 °C (−43 °F) on February 5, 2007. The coldest wind chill reading ever recorded was -57.1 on February 1, 1996.

A snowstorm in Winnipeg in May.

Summers are typically warm and often humid, particularly in July, with frequent night time thunderstorms. Occasionally, humidex readings exceed 40. On average, the maximum daily temperature exceeds 30 °C (86 °F) 14 days a year, however with the humidex, it exceeds 30, 45 days a year. The city often receives an Indian summer, when summer weather returns briefly after the first frosts, in mid to late October, or even early November. The highest temperature ever recorded in Winnipeg (since commencement of record-keeping in 1873) was 42.2 °C (108 °F) on July 11, 1936. The hottest temperature recorded in the past 25 years was 38.7 °C (102 °F) on August 6, 1988 and again on August 1, 1989. The highest humidex reading was 48 on July 25, 2007, although just 64 km (40 mi) southwest of the city, in the town of Carman, Manitoba broke Canada's all time humidex record, with a high of 53, July 25, 2007. The city averages 20.22 inches of precipitation per year, although this can vary greatly from year to year.

Spring and fall tend to be rather contracted seasons, each averaging little over six weeks. In general the weather during these seasons is highly variable, and rapidly changing. For example, temperatures in Winnipeg in April have ranged from −26.3 °C (−15 °F) to 34.3 °C (94 °F), and in October from −20.6 °C (−5 °F) to 30.5 °C (87 °F).

Climate data for Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Source 1: Environment Canada
Source 2: Extremes from 1938-2002, all other data from 1971-2000

An F5 tornado near Elie, Manitoba.

Winnipeg is one of Canada's sunniest cities, and the weather in all seasons is characterized by an abundance of sunshine. The city receives 2,372 hours of bright sunshine compared with 2,038 at Toronto and 1,928 at Vancouver. July is the sunniest month, and November the least sunny. Winnipeg, like Chicago, is also known as a windy city, although in fact it is less windy than cities such as Regina or Hamilton. The average annual wind speed is 16.9 km/h (10.5 mph), predominantly from the south but the city has experienced wind gusts of up to 129 km/h (80 mph). April is the windiest month, and July the least windy. Tornadoes are not uncommon in the area, particularly in the spring and summer months. The strongest tornado ever recorded in Canada, the Elie, Manitoba tornado a F5, hit Elie, just 40 km (25 mi) west of Winnipeg.