Geography and climate of Winnipeg
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Winnipeg lies at the bottom of the valley of the Red River and has a flat topography. Downtown Winnipeg is centred at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street about one kilometre (0.6 mile) 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. [1]
Downtown Winnipeg is the financial heart of the city, and covers an area of about one square mile (2.5 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 two major rivers. The urbanized area in Winnipeg is about 25 km (15 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, West Kildonan, Old Kildonan, North Kildonan, St. Boniface, St. Vital, Fort Garry, St. Norbert, and Transcona.
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.
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 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.
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 Duff Roblin's government to build the Red River Floodway (sometimes colloquially referred to as Duff's Ditch), a 49-kilometre (30 mile) 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 Dam. The flood-control system prevented flooding in 1974 and 1979 when water levels neared record levels. However, in the 1997 flood, flooding 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, USA.
The relatively flat terrain and the poor drainage of the Red River Valley's clay-based soil results in seasonal development of insect populations, such as mosquitos, which often intensifies during wet years.
[edit] Climate
Winnipeg lies in the middle of the North American continent on low-lying, flat land. It has an extreme humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dfb), in that there are great differences between summer and winter temperatures. As there are no nearby mountain ranges or bodies of water to ameliorate the winter climatic conditions, Winnipeg lies exposed to numerous weather systems including cold Arctic high pressure systems. 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 at Winnipeg was -47.8 °C (-54.0 °F), on December 24, 1879. The coldest temperature during the last 25 years was -41.7 °C (-43.1 °F) on February 5, 2007 [2] The coldest wind chill reading ever recorded was -57.1 °C (-70.8 °F) on February 1, 1996. According to Environment Canada, Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with a population of over 600,000.[3]
Summers are typically warm and often humid, particularly in June and July, with frequent thunderstorms. Occasionally, humidex readings exceed 40°C. The average maximum temperature for June, July, and August is 24.7 °C (76.5 °F). On average, the maximum daily temperature exceeds 30 °C (86 °F) on 11 days out of 92 for these three months and the minimum daily temperature falls to or below 2 °C (36 °F) on only one out of the 92 days. Depending on the year, warm weather can continue beyond Thanksgiving in October, or come to an abrupt end soon after Labour Day. 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 38.8 °C (101.8 °F) on September 2, 1983. The highest humidex reading was 48 on July 25, 2007.
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 May have ranged from -11.7 °C (10.9 °F) to 37.8 °C (100 °F), and in October from -20.6 °C (-5.1 °F) to 30.5 °C (86.9 °F).
| Winnipeg Climatological Data | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | ||||||||||||||
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Mean | |
| Record high °C (°F) | 8 (46) | 12 (53) | 23 (74) | 33 (94) | 37 (99) | 38 (100) | 38 (100) | 41 (105) | 39 (102) | 31 (90) | 24 (75) | 12 (53) | ||
| Average high °C (°F) | -13 (9) | -9 (17) | -1 (30) | 10 (51) | 19 (67) | 23 (74) | 26 (78) | 25 (77) | 19 (65) | 11 (51) | -1 (30) | -10 (15) | 8 (47) | |
| Mean °C (°F) | -18 (-0) | -14 (8) | -6 (21) | 4 (40) | 12 (54) | 17 (63) | 20 (67) | 19 (65) | 12 (54) | 5 (42) | -5 (22) | -14 (6) | 3 (37) | |
| Average low °C (°F) | -23 (-9) | -19 (-2) | -11 (12) | -2 (28) | 5 (41) | 11 (51) | 13 (56) | 12 (53) | 6 (43) | -0.3 (31) | -10 (15) | -19 (-2) | -3 (26) | |
| Record low °C (°F) | -42 (-44) | -45 (-49) | -38 (-36) | -26 (-15) | -11 (12) | -3 (26) | 1 (34) | 0.6 (33) | -7 (19) | -17 (1) | -34 (-29) | -38 (-36) | ||
| Precipitation and Sunshine Hours | ||||||||||||||
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | |
| Total mm (in) | 20 (0.8) | 15 (0.6) | 22 (0.9) | 32 (1.3) | 59 (2.3) | 90 (3.5) | 71 (2.8) | 75 (3.0) | 52 (2.1) | 36 (1.4) | 25 (1.0) | 19 (0.7) | 514 (20) | |
| Rainfall mm (in) | 0 (0.0) | 3 (0.1) | 8 (0.3) | 22 (0.9) | 58 (2.3) | 90 (3.5) | 71 (2.8) | 75 (3.0) | 52 (2.0) | 31 (1.2) | 6 (0.2) | 2 (0.1) | 416 (16) | |
| Snowfall cm (in) | 23 (9.1) | 14 (5.6) | 16 (6.2) | 10 (3.4) | 0.8 (0.3) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0.4 (0.2) | 5 (2.0) | 21 (8.4) | 20 (7.8) | 111 (44) | |
| Sunshine hours | 120 | 138 | 178 | 239 | 286 | 283 | 318 | 280 | 186 | 147 | 96 | 100 | 2372 | |
| Data recorded at Winnipeg International Airport by Environment Canada. Data spans 1971 to 2000. | ||||||||||||||
Winnipeg is one of Canada's sunniest cities, and the weather in all seasons is characterized by an abundance of sunshine. The city receives an average of 2,372 hours of sunshine per year compared with 1,928 hours at Vancouver and 2,037 hours at Toronto. July is the sunniest month, and November the least sunny. Winnipeg, like Chicago, is also known as a windy city. The average annual wind speed is 16.9 km/h (10.5 mph), predominantly from the south. 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 city receives an annual average of about 514 mm (20.6 inches) of precipitation including 111 cm (45 inches) of snow. The wettest month is June and the driest is February. There is measurable precipitation on 123 days throughout the year, including 55 days with snowfall. There is generally snow cover from mid-November to the end of March, though this varies depending on the year—heavy snowfalls in October and in April or even early May are not uncommon. Winnipeg is virtually assured of having a White Christmas as there is only one December 25 on record in the last century where there was no snow on the ground.[citation needed]
