Manitoba weather: A deep freeze readies its descent over the province

A sun dog shines over Cooks Creek on Jan. 21, 2026. (Emily Johnson(

Brace yourself for a deep freeze that’s about lock its grip on to Manitoba over the next few days.

Conditions are unusually similar across most of the province Wednesday – a mix of sun and cloud, a chance of flurries, gusting northwest winds and falling temperatures throughout the afternoon.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has issued a blowing snow advisory for areas near Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg’s southern shores, and the Red River Valley south of Winnipeg.

Gusty winds are expected to whip up blowing snow Wednesday that could reduce visibility to near-zero at times.

Conditions should improve in the afternoon, but the same areas could face similar conditions on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the weather agency has also issued a cold warning for northwestern Manitoba, where wind chill values as cold as -50 are expected, at times, over the next three days.

Cold warnings will likely expand to many other regions as a bitterly cold air mass spreads into southern Manitoba on Wednesday night into Thursday.

Overnight lows will plummet to the -30s across the north on Wednesday night and to the upper -20s and lower -30s in the south.

Temperatures won’t rise much on Thursday. In fact, they will hold steady in Winnipeg. They are forecast to drop to -29 C overnight Wednesday in the city and remain steady around -28 C Thursday.

No relief is coming to Manitoba until Sunday, when the cold will begin to ease up from west to east. For Winnipeg, it won’t be until Monday when the bitter cold will break.