Power restored to thousands of Winnipeggers following thunderstorm

Hundreds of lightening strikes and thousands of people without power on Tuesday morning, after a severe thunderstorm hit southern Manitoba overnight. And experts say more severe weather is on the way.

Winnipeg neighbourhood Linden Woods was one of the most impacted areas. Long-time resident Lorne Lix says the power outage is one of the longest he’s seen in his more than a decade in the area.

“It was a pretty severe storm,” said Lix, was one of hundreds of people in and around Winnipeg dealing with a power outage as a result of a severe storm that rolled over the city on Tuesday morning.

Lorne Lix, was one of hundreds of people in and around Winnipeg dealing with a power outage as a result of a severe storm that rolled over the city on Tuesday morning. (Photo Credit: Morgan Modjeski, CityNews)

Nearly 4,000 customers in and around the Linden Wood community were without power. Manitoba Hydro confirming crews were working on restoring power lines, which forced a shutdown of power to the area for safety.

“We’re working as quickly and safely as possible to restore everyone affected by last night/this morning’s storms. We know it sucks being without power and we appreciate everyone’s patience while we work to get it back on,” said Manitoba Hydro in a statement.

As of 2:30 p.m., 100 customers were left without power.

In addition, just over 2,000 people were left without power in the St. John’s community. Manitoba Hydro confirmed just before 3 p.m. that all power had been restored in that community.

For customers in Crestview, power was lost due to a power pole catching fire.

Update: the cause of this outage is a pole fire. We're still hoping to have power back on by 3 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Z3ncgeRbvY

— Manitoba Hydro (@manitobahydro) July 25, 2023

Roughly 830 people were affected by the outage as of 3 p.m., and Manitoba Hydro said they were hoping for power to be restored by 5 p.m.

“For this month of July, this would be the most active we’ve seen in and around Winnipeg,” said Natalie Hasell, Warning Preparedness Meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Hasell says the storm dropped between 23 and 64 millimetres of rain on the City of Winnipeg.

Radar from Environment Canada shows a “train” of storms that caused hundreds of lightning strikes over the city in a 12 hour period, marking what experts say is the month’s most extreme weather event so far. (Photo Credit: Environment Canada)

The storm also producing an immense amount of lightening.

“In and around the city, we had just over a thousand strikes.”

Hasell says while the data is still being compiled, last night’s storm produced more lightening that a storm earlier in the month producing 1,048 strikes, but still fell short of the seasonal high recorded in June of more than 3,200 strikes.

She says it’s important to pay attention to warnings and watches issued by the national forecaster, reminding people seek shelter immediately during severe summer weather.

“It is so not over. We are busy all through the summer in southern Manitoba, well into August. Some of the biggest storms we’ve seen in previous years, were in mid-to-late August, so we are not done.”

Cadets can be seen at the intersection of McGillivary Blvd. and Lindenwood Drive West where traffic lights were not functioning due to a power outage in the area. (Photo Credit: Morgan Modjeski, CityNews)

Across the province, Manitoba Hydro announced on Twitter around 7:30 p.m. Monday that 1,000 customers had lost power in Mission Gardens.

By Tuesday morning, over 700 customers had lost power along Highway 206 near Landmark. Manitoba Hydro confirmed just before 8:30 a.m. that the outage was caused by a tree on the lines.

As of 8:30 a.m., the power company said on Twitter 1,240 customers were without power in the Interlake region. This power outage was confirmed to be due to wildfires in the area, and there is no timeline for power to be restored.