Thousands without power as snow moves into Manitoba

Manitoba Hydro has extra crews responding to outages across the provinceas a result of snowy weather moving though the province.

As of 5:45 p.m., more than 17,000 customers were in the dark. Manitoba Hydro spokespersonBruce Owen said customers can expect problems throughout the afternoon as the weather system moves east.

"The problem with the weather coming in is we have moisture, ice, rain forming on our lines and causing outages," he said. "The additional problem is a lot of foliage is on the trees. We have that ice on leaves, on branches. With that extra weight, we're seeing trees coming down on lines, causing problems as well."

Manitoba Hydro tweeted a video of a fire caused by those conditions near Meadows School in Brandon.

Hydro said power in Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Carman had been restored Wednesday afternoon.

Between fiveand 10 cm of snow is expected in the Brandon area by the time the snow is all said and done. Rain and wet snow began falling in Winnipeg Wednesday afternoon.

Owen said areas around Neepawa, Russell and Riding Mountain National Park were hit hardest by the weather.

• Latest Manitoba Hydro outages

The weather also prompted Parks Canada to close Highway 19, on the east side of Riding Mountain National Park.

Snow plows were out in the Brandon area Wednesday afternoon. The Trans-Canada Highway was reported as ice-covered and partly ice covered Wednesday afternoon. Other highways in the area were reported as being snow covered, according to Manitoba 511.

In Brandon, the city tweeted that crews would be out sanding, addressing "hot spots" of ice and snow accumulation on city streets.

The snow is expected to taper off through Wednesday.

Snow moves into Manitoba

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Between five and 10 cm of snow is expected in the Brandon area by the time the snow is all said and done Wednesday afternoon, with rain and wet snow expected in Winnipeg.