If you feel like this year has been snowier than anything you remember, there is a good reason.

Rob Paola is a retired Environment Canada meteorologist who still stays active by following weather trends and keeping his own records. He says this winter is shaping up to be one of the snowiest on record over the course of 150 years.

He says it certainly has been snowier than the typical winter that we usually see in this part of Manitoba, and the season is far from over.

We often get a lot of precipitation in the latter part of winter and early spring.

derable risk of significant flooding along the Red River between Emerson and Morris.

Paola points out that in the winter of 1996-97 there was 143.3 cm (about 4.7 ft) of snow by this date. Large storms in the spring caused the Flood of the Century.

He says that another infamous blizzard hit the region in March of 1966. "We've also had other large snowfalls during the month of March and April. So, yes, we still could see additional heavy precipitation on top of what we've seen so far."

While Manitobans enjoyed an early spring last year, including people golfing by mid-March, it is safe to say that will not be the case this year.

{gallery}Feb 21 2022 snow shoveling{/gallery}

"Last spring was actually one of the earliest spring melts where we lost our snow cover on record,” Paola notes. “We lost our snow cover by March 8 last year in Winnipeg and even earlier in other parts of the Red River Valley. We hit a record high of 14 degrees on March 8 last year. So that goes to show how early spring arrived last year because of the lack of snow."

This year it is a different story.