Snowfall warnings issued for northeastern parts of Saskatchewan

As expected, Old Man Winter is paying another visit to Saskatchewan.

Environment Canada issued snowfall warnings for areas in northeastern Saskatchewan on Tuesday, saying some regions could get up to 30 centimetres of snow.

“Snow may be mixed with rain early (Tuesday) evening,” the weather service said. “Snow will quickly intensify later (Tuesday) evening, with the heaviest snow expected (Tuesday night). Snow will taper off on Thursday.”

According to Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor, the weather system hitting Saskatchewan is expected to bring in a lot of cold air and high winds. The winds are expected to taper off closer to the weekend.

Proctor said it may be quite a mixed bag when it comes to precipitation levels throughout the province.

“We’re seeing the potential for some fairly localized but potentially more significant snowfall in a few localities,” he said. “But it’s really difficult to see where they’re going to be at this point in time, and what is really responsible for that is that there are really two low-pressure areas that are coming across.

“The one that’s coming across Saskatchewan now, that’s sort of happening a bit, but there is a bigger centre down in the northern Great Plains (of the) United States, which has really cut off a lot of the moisture sources for this feature. So we’re seeing more precipitation, heavy stuff, down through (the Great Plains) but a little bit less over our area. (There’s) less potential for widespread stuff.”

The parts of the province that could see heavier snow are the areas east of the Highway 11 corridor, such as Nipawin and Hudson Bay, and then moving up towards Creighton. Proctor said that for the south, it could be a completely different story.

“We’re not seeing a whole lot for the area, and one of the interesting things associated with this is really that the temperatures are going to be hovering just around the freezing point,” he said.

“We’re also seeing fairly warm ground temperatures at this point as well, so I think we’ll see a lot of whatever falls really melt on contact to a degree, at least initially, and then sort of accumulate. Maybe two to four centimetres, maybe five centimetres, is the sort of general accumulation we’ll likely see in that area of the province.”

When it comes to moisture levels for farmers, Proctor said this spring storm likely won’t help.

“We’re going to see some I wouldn’t say significant amounts at this point in time, and I don’t think it’s going to do anything to really alleviate long-term drought concerns,” said Proctor.

The Water Security Agency has said in its spring runoff forecasts that some areas of the province can expect drought-like conditions, given the relative lack of snow over the winter.