Steinbach streets were flooded following August 29th rain

Who could forget the deluge of rain that fell in Steinbach the morning of August 29th? Nearly two inches of rain was recorded in only twenty minutes. There was also hail for a brief period and wind gusts of sixty kilometres per hour. Emergency Coordinator Denis Vassart listed that as the most memorable weather event for his Storm Ready team in 2014.

The Storm Ready season is now over. Vassart says this year it ran from late April to early October. He notes other highlights from the year included the funnel cloud spotted northeast of St.Pierre July 25th and the Tornado Warning July 26th.
    
"We were a little busier than last year," says Vassart. "Not quite as busy as we were in 2012."

After crunching the numbers it would appear more days were spent watching the radar in 2014 than in any of the other previous years that records were kept. There were 30 days of radar watching in 2014 compared to 17 in 2013, 28 in 2012 and 19 in 2011.

But in 2014 there were fewer hours spent watching radar compared to some other years. The 84.5 hours compares to 56 in 2013, 135 in 2012 and 89 in 2011.

In terms of sky watching, teams went out 16 times for 61 team hours in 2014, compared to 9 times for 51.5 hours in 2013, 9 times for 54 hours in 2012 and 10 times for 26 hours in 2011.

"We had more severe weather days (in 2014)," says Vassart. "In watching the radar, that's our first clue is we start watching to see where the storms are tracking towards that might come to us. And then when it looks like something's going to hit us or we get a Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for our area, then we will definitely have people out to watch the skies."

Vassart refers to his Storm Ready team as valuable. He says it enhances their emergency planning and preparedness.

"We're hoping that we will see growth in this," says Vassart. "Manitoba EMO and Environment Canada are working towards making it something beyond just a pilot project and getting it into other communities."

This year's Storm Ready team consisted of about 26 people.