First snowfall 'really amazing' for Yahya Samatar, Somali who swam into Canada

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First snowfall 'really amazing' for Yahya Samatar, Somali who swam into Canada

Snow started blanketing Winnipeg and southern Manitoba on Wednesday

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Snow started blanketing Winnipeg and southern Manitoba on Wednesday

Yahya Samatar took this selfie in his full winter gear on Thursday. (Courtesy Yahya Samatar)

The snow falling across southern Manitoba on Thursday is opening up "another world" for Yahya Samatar, the Somali man who swam across the Red River to enter Manitoba earlier this year.

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Samatar had never seen snow before — at least, until it started blanketing Winnipeg and southern Manitoba on Wednesday night.

He told Ismaila Alfa of CBC'sUp to Speedprogram about what it felt like when he woke up and looked outside his window on Thursday morning.

"It looks like another world … so it's really amazing," Samatar said.

"A friend of mine in the morning said to me how mild it is and tell me, like, 'Welcome to winter.' And then he said, 'You ain't seen nothing yet.'"

The total snowfall in Winnipeg is expected to reach 10 centimetres by day's end Thursday, says CBC meteorologist John Sauder.

Samatar arrived in Manitoba in August, in part by swimming in the Red River from North Dakota. A passerby spotted him on the side of a road near Emerson, Man.

He has been staying in Winnipeg since then. In September, an adjudicator ruled that Samatar is a "protected person" and cannot be deported.

Samatar said his friends have told him that if he dresses properly, he should easily get through his first Winnipeg winter.