The geography of Manitoba addresses the easternmost of the three prairie Canadian provinces, located in the longitudinal centre of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

borders on

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

to the west,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

to the east,

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

to the north, and the American states of

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

to the south. Although the border with Saskatchewan appears straight on large-scale maps, it actually has many right-angle corners that give the appearance of a slanted line. In elevation, Manitoba ranges from

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

on Hudson Bay to 2727 ft (831 m) on top of

Baldy Mountain There are a number of peaks named Baldy: Canada * Baldy Mountain (Manitoba), , * Big Baldy Mountain (Vancouver Island, British Columbia), United States Peaks named "Baldy" Peaks named "Baldy Mountain" ...

. The northern sixty percent of the province is on the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...

. The northernmost regions of Manitoba lie

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

(permanently frozen subsoil), and a section of

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

bordering

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. All waters in the province flow into Hudson Bay, due to its coastal area.

Lake Winnipegosis Lake Winnipegosis is a large (5,370 km2) lake in central North America, in Manitoba, Canada, some 300 km northwest of Winnipeg. It is Canada's eleventh-largest lake. An alternate spelling, once common but now rare, is Lake Winipigoos or ...

and

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (french: Lac Winnipeg, oj, ᐑᓂᐸᑲᒥᐠᓴᑯ˙ᑯᐣ, italics=no, Weenipagamiksaguygun) is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Its southern end is about north of ...

are two of its largest lakes. Important rivers are the Red River,

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a sin ...

Nelson River The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The river drains Lake Winnipeg and runs before it ends in Hudson Bay. Its full length (including the Saskatchewan River and Bow River) is , i ...

, and Churchill River. Manitoba is the sixth largest Canadian province, and the eighth largest Canadian province by percentage of fresh water. The capital and largest city of the province is

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

; the province lies in the time zone UTC −6.

Environmental geography

Manitoba has an extreme climate, but southern latitudes allow agriculture. The northern area of the region ranges from

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...

ous forests to

muskeg Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or p ...

to tundra in the far north. Before settlement had occurred, a vast portion of southern Manitoba was either

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

. An extensive system for drainage ditches was required throughout south-central Manitoba to make the region suitable for cultivation. Boreal forests of the southern part of the province have extensive

black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Lab ...

and

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States * ''Picea engelmannii ''Picea engelman ...

forests. The tundra region of northern Manitoba exhibits more sparse black spruce forests whose tree heights are limited by the thin soils, permafrost underlayer and generally cold climate. In this region

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear spec ...

s are found, denning in the Wapusk National Park and migrating to hunt for seals when

pack ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "faste ...

forms on

Ecozones and Ecoregions

The following ecozones and ecoregions are found in Manitoba. * Southern Arctic Ecozone **Maguse River Upland Ecoregion (Hubbart Point Ecodistrict) * Taiga Shield Ecozone **Kazan River Upland Ecoregion (Pakulak Lake Ecodistrict, Blevens Lake Ecodistrict, Nejanilini Lake Ecodistrict) **Selwyn Lake Upland Ecoregion (Nueltin Lake Ecodistrict, Seal River Ecodistrict, Sprott Lake Ecodistrict, Embleton Lake Ecodistrict, Big Sand Lake Ecodistrict, Northern Indian Lake Ecodistrict) * Boreal Shield Ecozone **Churchill River Upland Ecoregion (Reindeer Lake Ecodistrict, Wells Lake Ecodistrict, Southern Indian Lake Ecodistrict, Waskaiowaka Lake Ecodistrict, Granville Lake Ecodistrict, Orr Lake Ecodistrict, Three Point Lake Ecodistrict, Wekusko Ecodistrict, Flin Flon Ecodistrict, Reed Lake Ecodistrict) **Hayes River Upland Ecoregion (Knee Lake Ecodistrict, Pikwitonei Lake Ecodistrict, Silsby Lake Ecodistrict, Sipiwesk Lake Ecodistrict, Island Lake Ecodistrict, Gods Lake Ecodistrict, Norway House Ecodistrict, Gunisao Lake Ecodistrict, Cantin Lake Ecodistrict) **Lac Seul Upland Ecoregion (Berens River Ecodistrict, Wrong Lake Ecodistrict, Nopiming Ecodistrict) **Lake of the Woods Ecoregion (Stead Ecodistrict, Pinawa Ecodistrict, Kenora Ecodistrict, Whitemouth Ecodistrict, Piney Ecodistrict *

Boreal Plains Ecozone The Boreal Plains Ecozone, as defined by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), is a terrestrial ecozone in the western Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. It also has minor extensions into northeastern British ...

**Mid-Boreal Lowland Ecoregion (Playgreen Lake Ecodistrict, Namew Lake Ecodistrict, Cormorant Lake Ecodistrict, Cedar Lake Ecodistrict, Summerberry Ecodistrict, The Pas Moraine Ecodistrict, Saskatchewan Delta Ecodistrict, Grand Rapids Ecodistrict, Narrows Islands Ecodistrict, Overflowing River Ecodistrict, Pelican Lake Ecodistrict, Chitek Lake Ecodistrict, Sturgeon Bay Ecodistrict, Grindstone Ecodistrict) **Boreal Transition Ecoregion (Swan River Ecodistrict) **Mid-Boreal Uplands Ecoregion (Porcupine Hills Ecodistrict, Duck Mountain Ecodistrict, Riding Mountain Ecodistrict) **Interlake Plain Ecoregion (Swan Lake Ecodistrict, Waterhen Ecodistrict, Gypsumville Ecodistrict, Ashern Ecodistrict, Gimli Ecodistrict, Steinbach Ecodistrict) *

Prairies Ecozone The Prairies Ecozone is a Canadian terrestrial ecozone which spans the southern areas of the Prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It is a productive agricultural area, and is commonly referred to as "Canada's breadbasket". Fa ...

**Aspen Parkland Ecoregion (St. Lazare Ecodistrict, Melville Ecodistrict, Hamiota Ecodistrict, Shilo Ecodistrict, Stockton Ecodistrict, Carberry Ecodistrict, Gainsborough Creek Ecodistrict, Oak Lake Ecodistrict, Hilton Ecodistrict, Killarney Ecodistrict, Manitou Ecodistrict, Grandview Ecodistrict) **Lake Manitoba Plain Ecoregion (Dauphin Ecodistrict, Alonsa Ecodistrict, Ste. Rose Ecodistrict, McCreary Ecodistrict, Lundar Ecodistrict, Gladstone Ecodistrict, Langruth Ecodistrict, Winnipeg Ecodistrict, MacGregor Ecodistrict, Portage Ecodistrict, Winkler Ecodistrict, Emerson Ecodistrict) **Southwest Manitoba Uplands Ecoregion (Pembina Hills Ecodistrict, Turtle Mountain Ecodistrict) * Hudson Plains Ecozone **Coastal Hudson Bay Lowland Ecoregion (Churchill Ecodistrict, York Factory Ecodistrict, Fort Severn Ecodistrict) ** Hudson Bay Lowland Ecoregion (Winisk River Lowland Ecodistrict, French Creek Ecodistrict, Sombert Lake Ecodistrict)

Historical geography

Manitoba is bordered on the east by

, on the south by

and

, on the west by

, and on the north by

. Northeast Manitoba follows the Hudson Bay shoreline.

Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

, on the Hudson Bay is the only port for the prairie provinces. The harbour serves as an open market for

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

. Manitoba was the first

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nor ...

to be involved in the

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

industry. There are only three ice-free months a year that allow for the shipments to be sent when shipping through the home port of Churchill. The

limits the amount of farming in the north, but there are some forestry and mining operations. The majority of the grain production is found in farms in the south. Central and southern Manitoba is covered by lakes and rivers. Most of the population is centred in the southern third of the province. Manitoba played a significant role in the European settlement of the Canadian west. Explorers arrived in Manitoba by the Hudson Bay, in search of a passage to China. As the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

boomed, settlements rose up in the province to trading posts for the Natives and the

voyageurs The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including th ...

. The settlement was not easy, and colonization slowed down for several years around 1816. In 1870, the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

sold its huge domain to the

confederation of Canada Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominion of ...

. Settlement inflated in Manitoba when the railway was built in the province and again in late 19th, early 20th century when government promoted settlement by European immigrants.

Mountain ranges of Manitoba

Manitoba has two mountain/hill ranges, which are both

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

s formed by prehistoric

Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz was a large glacial lake in central North America. Fed by glacial meltwater at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined. First postulated in 1823 by William H. Keating, i ...

: the

Pembina Escarpment The Pembina Escarpment is a scarp that runs from South Dakota to Manitoba, and forms the western wall of the Red River Valley. The height of the escarpment above the river valley is . Geology The escarpment was originally formed by the undercut ...

and the

Manitoba Escarpment The Manitoba Escarpment, or the Western Manitoba Uplands, are a range of hills along the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. The eastern slopes of the range are considered to be a scarp. They were created by glacial scouring and formed the western s ...

. * The Pembina Mountains are located in southern Manitoba and extend to the

and over

border. The highest point is 2,000 feet. * The Manitoba Escarpment has four different sets of mountains/hills, and three are in Manitoba: the Riding Mountains, the Duck Mountains, and the Porcupine Mountains. The highest point in Manitoba is

, which reaches 2,727 feet (832 m) and is located in the Duck Mountains.

Hart Mountain Hart Mountain is a fault-block mountain, in Lake County, Oregon, U.S. It lies about to the east of Lakeview. It is sometimes confused with a mountain range, but is more properly described as a mountain. The two highest peaks are Warner Peak a ...

, which is located in the Porcupine Mountains, rises to 2,700 feet and is not far behind.

Geology

In central Manitoba lies the

Flin Flon greenstone belt The Flin Flon greenstone belt, also referred to as the Flin Flon – Snow Lake greenstone belt, is a Precambrian greenstone belt located in the central area of Manitoba and east-central Saskatchewan, Canada (near Flin Flon). It lies in the central ...

, which is one of the largest

Paleoproterozoic The Paleoproterozoic Era (;, also spelled Palaeoproterozoic), spanning the time period from (2.5–1.6 Ga), is the first of the three sub-divisions ( eras) of the Proterozoic Eon. The Paleoproterozoic is also the longest era of the Earth's ...

volcanic-hosted massive sulphide districts in the world, containing 27

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

) deposits from which more than 183 million tonnes of sulphide have been mined.

Climate

Deep Lake - Riding Mountain National Park

Manitoba has an extreme

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in the middle latitudes (40 to 55 north), within large landmasses where prevailing winds blow overland bringing so ...

. Temperatures and precipitation generally decrease from south to north and increase from east to west. Manitoba is far from the moderating influences of mountain ranges or large bodies of water. Because of the generally flat landscape, it is exposed to cold Arctic high-pressure air masses from the northwest during January and February. In the summer, air masses sometimes come out of the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, as warm humid air is drawn northward from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

. Temperatures exceed numerous times each summer, and the combination of heat and humidity can bring the

humidex The humidex (short for humidity index) is an index number used by Canadian meteorologists to describe how hot the weather feels to the average person, by combining the effect of heat and humidity. The term ''humidex'' was coined in 1965. The humi ...

value to the mid-40s.

Carman, Manitoba Carman is a small agricultural town of about 3,000 people in the Pembina Valley Region of southern Manitoba, Canada. Carman is at the junction of Highways 3 and 13, 40 minutes southwest of Winnipeg. It is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of ...

, recorded the second-highest humidex ever in Canada in 2007, with 53.0. According to

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ...

, Manitoba ranked first for clearest skies year round and ranked second for clearest skies in the summer and for the sunniest province in the winter and spring.

Southern Manitoba Southern Manitoba is the southernmost area of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Southern Manitoba encompasses the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, Westman Region, Central Plains Region, Eastman Region, and Pembina Valley Region, as well as the M ...

(including the city of Winnipeg), falls into the humid continental climate zone (Köppen Dfb). This area is cold and windy in the winter and often has blizzards because of the open landscape. Summers are warm with a moderate length. This region is the most humid area in the prairie provinces, with moderate precipitation. Southwestern Manitoba, though under the same climate classification as the rest of Southern Manitoba, is closer to the semi-arid interior of

Palliser's Triangle Palliser's Triangle, or the Palliser Triangle, is a semi-arid steppe occupying a substantial portion of the Western Canadian Prairie Provinces, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, within the Great Plains region. While initially determined to be un ...

. The area is drier and more prone to

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

s than other parts of southern Manitoba. This area is cold and windy in the winter and has frequent blizzards due to the openness of the

Canadian Prairie The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

landscape. Summers are generally warm to hot, with low to moderate humidity. Southern parts of the province, just north of

Tornado Alley Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, ...

, experience

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

es, with 16 confirmed touchdowns in 2016. In 2007, on 22 and 23 June, numerous tornadoes touched down, the largest an F5 tornado that devastated parts of

Elie Elie and Earlsferry is a coastal town and former royal burgh in Fife, and parish, Scotland, situated within the East Neuk beside Chapel Ness on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, eight miles east of Leven. The burgh comprised the linked v ...

(the strongest recorded tornado in Canada). Manitoba Köppen

The province's northern sections (including the city of

Thompson Thompson may refer to: People * Thompson (surname) * Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician Places Australia *Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality Bulgaria * Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province Canada ...

) fall in the

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...

zone (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Dfc''). This region features long and extremely cold winters and brief, warm summers with little precipitation. Overnight temperatures as low as occur on several days each winter.

Climate data

Statistics

Location and boundary

* Area: 250,946 mi² / 649,950 km² * Land surface: 211721 mi² / 548,360 km² * North to south: 761 miles / 1225 km * Width (south): 279 miles / 449 km * North boundary (width): 260 miles / 418 km * Coastline: 400 miles / 645 km * ''Water surface'': 39,225 mi² / 101,593 km² * Widest point: 493 miles / 793 km

Population

* Total population 1,272,000 (2014) * Population density 1.78 people/km² (ranked 5th among Canadian provinces and territories)

Line note references

External links

Manitoba Geology

Answers.com for Manitoba

Manitoba Geography

Mountain ranges

by John Welsted, John Everitt and Christoph Stadel of University of Manitoba Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Geography Of Manitoba