Strange Weather

Winnipeg doesn't usually have several days of above freezing weather in January. Heavy wet snow, sleet, and rain, is equally unusual. The combination of the two is ugly.

This is what Portage Avenue, one of Winnipeg's major streets, looked like at about 830 yesterday morning. We had given friends a ride to the airport and were heading off to do some errands. The few cyclists I saw were on the sidewalks pushing their bikes through the mush.

The snowplows were out in full force, but the stuff kept oozing back off the edge of the streets and into the curb lane.

The wet stuff continued pretty much all day yesterday and we are expecting more today. Then the winds are supposed to shift and by tomorrow afternoon the temperature is supposed to drop to -17C. I'm hoping the 'plows can contend with the ice and clear the streets all the way across. The Geek is working from home tomorrow (preplanned but still fortuitous) and I am taking the bus.