User:PaleHorse67/sandbox

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.

The city is named after the nearby Lake Winnipeg; the name comes from the Western Cree words for muddy water. The region was a trading centre for Indigenous peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738. A settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers of the Red River Colony in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. , Winnipeg is the seventh most populated municipality in Canada, with a resident population of about 778,500. Being far inland, the local climate is extremely seasonal even by Canadian standards with average January lows of around -21 C and average July highs of 26 C.

Known as the "Gateway to the West", Winnipeg is a railway and transportation hub with a diversified economy. This multicultural city hosts numerous annual festivals, including the Festival du Voyageur, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, and Folklorama. Winnipeg was the first Canadian host of the Pan American Games. It is home to several professional sports franchises, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Canadian football), the Winnipeg Jets (ice hockey), Manitoba Moose (ice hockey), Valour FC (soccer), and the Winnipeg Goldeyes (baseball).

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Climate
Winnipeg's location in the Canadian Prairies gives it a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with warm, humid summers, and long, severely cold winters. Summers have a July mean average of 19.7 C. Winters are the coldest and driest time of year, with the January mean average around -16.4 C and total winter precipitation (December through February) averaging 55.2 mm. Temperatures occasionally drop below -40.0 C.

On average there are 317.8 days per year with measurable sunshine, with July seeing the most on average. With 2353 hours of sunshine per year, Winnipeg is the second sunniest city in Canada. Total annual precipitation (both rain and snow) is just over 52 cm. Thunderstorms are very common during summer, and sometimes severe enough to produce tornadoes. Low wind chill values are a common occurrence in the local climate. The wind chill has gone down as low as −57 C and on average there are twelve days of the year that can reach a wind chill below −40 C.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Winnipeg was 42.2 C on 11 July 1936 while the highest daily low temperature was 28.3 C on 12 July 1936. The apparent heat can be even more extreme due to bursts of humidity, and on 25 July 2007 a humidex reading of 47.3 C was measured.

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The frost-free season is comparatively long for a location with such severe winters. The last spring frost is on average around 23 May, whilst the first fall frost is on 22 September.

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