SASKATCHEWAN — Hundreds of thousands of Saskatchewan residents are digging out after a powerful Alberta clipper storm that plowed through the province on Dec. 17.
A blizzard warning was issued for Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, as well as communities within more than 200 RMs, from Dec. 16-18. A freezing rain warning was in effect Dec. 18 for southern Saskatchewan, and a wind warning covered the southwest region that same day.
Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, a “blizzard alley” from the Battlefords to Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Regina was hit hard. She added a stretch from Rosetown to Davidson appears to have received a lot of snow.
Environment Canada doesn’t track snowfall accumulations any longer, she said, so it relies on volunteers to measure the snow. A handful of their reporters had checked in as of the morning of Dec. 18.
“They’re struggling because they have anywhere from zero [centimetres], where it’s been scoured clean, to two-foot drifts,” said Lang. “It’s quite a struggle in these types of situations to try to get some kind of totals.”
Lang resides in Saskatoon and she said she measured about 15 centimetres. She added she does her best to find a representative area and conduct a number of measurements and even them out, since some recordings are affected by snow drifts.
One person she knows of in Clavet reported snow observation was difficult due to blizzard conditions and drifting snow. Another weather observer in Regina told her he received about seven centimetres.
Lang noted Regina also had about three millimetres of freezing rain, which is a lot for the area. And it doesn’t take much freezing rain to make a mess.
“The guy in Regina said his gauge is frozen and cannot be removed from the mounting, so that tells you that … there was a lot of freezing rain,” said Lang.
The freezing rain occurred along Highway 1 and into the southeast, creating “a mess” for a lot of travellers, she said. Regina, Moose Jaw, Swift Current and other areas were coated with the precipitation. Lang noted she saw photos of some of the collisions on the highways.
Travel was not recommended on a lot of highways throughout central and southern Saskatchewan, and some highways were closed. The Saskatchewan RCMP advised against travel.
The northern areas affected by the storm didn’t get the freezing rain, she said.
The southwest region was hit by strong wind gusts, Lang said, with Eastend recording a gust of 120 kilometres per hour. She also noted a large power failure in the southwest due to winds.
Lang said it will be cold with high wind chills in Saskatchewan on Dec. 18, but for the most part, the storm has passed into Manitoba. Another Alberta clipper is scheduled to pass through the province on Dec. 19.
“We’re going to see a little bit more wind and more snow. It's not as strong as the one that we saw yesterday. There’s not as much warm air associated with it, either, so we shouldn’t have too much in the way of freezing rain problems.”
The bulk of Saskatchewan residents south of Prince Albert can look forward to another five to 10 centimetres, she said, with some heavier snow expected around Yorkton.
