Southcentral Manitoba is on track to be one of the five snowiest winters on record.

That is according to Scott Kehler with Weatherlogics. Kehler says we have received about 150 centimetres of snow, making it the third or fourth snowiest at this point of the season. But, it is well back of the highest total ever recorded by this date. Back in the winter of 1955-56, southcentral Manitoba had more than 200 centimetres of snow by mid-February.

Even the winter of 1996-97 was not as snowy to this point. That was the year of the Flood of the Century. However, Kehler is quick to point out that the flooding that spring was heavily influenced by an early spring storm. According to Kehler, that one storm in April produced nearly 60 per cent of all the moisture we have on the ground right now.

"If we don't see a big storm like that this spring, we'll be in much better shape than '97, even though up to this point the snowpack is similar," Kehler points out.

g. In a winter like this, when the snowpack is so deep, Kehler says it will be difficult to have a mild March that gets rid of all of our snow. For that reason, he anticipates March will remain wintery and that we will not suddenly switch to spring in the next couple of weeks.