Manitoba Road Conditions and Highway Weather

Major highways in Manitoba

The corridors this page follows, each with its own page. Surface and temperature are the latest readings along the whole road; the summits are where the same road is a different drive.

• Highway 1 (Trans-Canada) — The Trans-Canada from the Saskatchewan line through Brandon and Portage la Prairie to Winnipeg and the Ontario line: the flattest, most exposed 490 km on the whole route, closed when the wind takes the visibility between Portage and the city.
• Highway 75 — Winnipeg to the US border down the Red River valley through Morris: the truck route to the States, dead flat, and shut by blowing snow and ice as often as by the spring flood.

Closures and road work are not yet imported for Manitoba; Manitoba 511 carries them. No weather warnings from Environment and Climate Change Canada are in force as of Sep 20, 2026 5:48 AM CDT.

Manitoba Winter Tire Rules

Manitoba has no winter tire law. The equipment rules require tread — 1.6 mm — and nothing about the season, and the province's answer to winter is a loan rather than a rule: Manitoba Public Insurance finances winter tires for up to four years. Studded tires are the one thing the law dates, legal from 1 October to 30 April.

What the law says

No Manitoba law requires winter tires on a passenger vehicle: the Driver's Handbook's required equipment is tires with at least 1.6 mm of tread, of the same construction and size, free of cuts and bulges. Manitoba Public Insurance's Winter Tire Program lends an eligible MPI customer up to $2,000 a vehicle at prime plus 2% over up to 48 months for tires carrying the three-peaked mountain and snowflake symbol. You are required to drive to the conditions.

Studded tires

Studded tires are illegal in Manitoba between April 30 and October 1 — legal, that is, from 1 October to 30 April — on the Driver's Handbook's own words. Saskatchewan, next door, has no such dates.

How you will know it is active

• Manitoba 511, which reports every highway section and the closures as they are declared
• The RCMP, who close the Perimeter and the Trans-Canada to all travel in a blizzard
• Environment and Climate Change Canada's blowing snow advisories and blizzard warnings

There is no seasonal switch here. What changes is the wind, and Manitoba 511 ↗ is the province's own account of what it has done to the road before you set off.

Source: Manitoba Driver's Handbook, Required Equipment, checked September 9, 2026.

When roads get bad in Manitoba

What the road normally throws at you, month by month, from Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1981–2010 normals at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, Brandon Airport, Portage la Prairie and Thompson Airport — four stations, four climates, and each month names the worst of them and the place that measured it. This is what the month is usually like, not a forecast and not a rule.

• Jan Freezing rain Freezing rain on about 2.6 days a month somewhere on the network, and 31 nights below freezing at Winnipeg.
• Feb Freezing rain Freezing rain on about 2.3 days a month somewhere on the network, and 28 nights below freezing at Brandon.
• Mar Freezing rain Freezing rain on about 1.9 days a month somewhere on the network, and 31 nights below freezing at Thompson.
• Apr Freezing rain Freezing rain on about 1.7 days a month somewhere on the network, and 28 nights below freezing at Thompson.
• May Freezing rain Freezing rain on about 0.9 day a month somewhere on the network, and 18 nights below freezing at Thompson.
• Jun Rain and fog Frost is rare even at Thompson, the coldest of the four; the hazards are rain, fog and the odd summer storm.
• Jul Rain and fog Frost is rare even at Thompson, the coldest of the four; the hazards are rain, fog and the odd summer storm.
• Aug Rain and fog Frost is rare even at Thompson, the coldest of the four; the hazards are rain, fog and the odd summer storm.
• Sep Cold nights 11 nights below freezing at Thompson; the high passes can still see snow.
• Oct Freezing rain Freezing rain on about 2.0 days a month somewhere on the network, and 26 nights below freezing at Thompson.
• Nov Snow 35 cm of snow in an average month at Thompson, with 30 nights below freezing there.
• Dec Freezing rain Freezing rain on about 3.2 days a month somewhere on the network, and 31 nights below freezing at Brandon.

Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010, through the MSC GeoMet API. Snowfall is the monthly total; nights below freezing are days whose minimum was at or under 0 °C.

Manitoba 511 is the free traveller information service run by Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure, at manitoba511.ca, by web, app and phone. It is the province's own account of its highways, and it publishes:

• The condition of every provincial highway section, as the maintenance staff across the province report it
• Closures, detours, cautions and incidents, including the RCMP's blizzard closures
• Highway cameras and the position of the plows
• The same by phone at 511 and on @MBGovRoads

Manitoba 511 and the conditions on this page

Manitoba 511 reports what the maintenance staff have seen and declared for each section, and the closures the RCMP order when a blizzard takes the visibility on the Perimeter or the Trans-Canada. What this page adds is the layer under those declarations — the surface condition estimated along the whole road from radar and analysis, and the wind, which between Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg is the number that closes the road.

Manitoba Winter Driving FAQ

Are winter tires mandatory in Manitoba?

No. Manitoba requires tread, not winter tires — the Driver's Handbook's equipment rules set a 1.6 mm minimum and nothing about the season — and instead Manitoba Public Insurance runs a Winter Tire Program that finances up to $2,000 a vehicle at prime plus 2% over up to four years for tires carrying the mountain-snowflake symbol. Studded tires are the one thing the law dates: legal from 1 October to 30 April only.

Why does the Perimeter Highway close in a blizzard?

Because it is a ring of open prairie around a city on the flattest ground in Canada. When the wind gets up — gusts of 80 km/h on 27 February 2026 — the snow on the fields crosses the road as a ground blizzard and the visibility drops to nothing while Winnipeg itself is merely windy; the RCMP closed the whole Perimeter that day, and the North Perimeter and Highway 75 on 17 January 2025. Winnipeg averages 19 days a year of blowing snow.

Where does Manitoba publish road closures?

On Manitoba 511, run by Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure: the condition of every highway section as the maintenance staff report it, closures and detours, cameras and plows, by web, app and phone. The RCMP's blizzard closures appear there as they are made. The City of Winnipeg's streets are the City's own.

How cold is a Manitoba winter for driving?

Winnipeg Richardson International averages −16.4 °C in January with a mean overnight low of −21.4 °C and 28 or 29 days that stay below freezing, on the 1981–2010 normals; Brandon is a degree colder. Salt is useless at those temperatures, so the highways run on sand and packed snow, and 114 cm of snow a year stays where it falls until March.