Saskatchewan braces for second surge of winter weather

A double whammy of winter weather is set drift into the province on Saturday, bringing fast-falling snow along with it.

Chris Stammers, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the storm is expected to move into the southwest part of the province on Saturday afternoon and move across the province up to the Meadow Lake area.

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“It’ll be a solid 12 to 18 hours of snow for most areas,” Stammers said.

Snowfall warnings were issued by Environment Canada on Friday for parts of the southwest and west-central areas of the province, and the warnings were later expanded to include Saskatoon, Regina, and all of central Saskatchewan.

Snowfall warnings covered much of central Saskatchewan on Friday afternoon. (Environment Canada/Screenshot)

“I imagine it’ll be expanded eastward this afternoon to include Regina, but right now it’s just a little bit outside of the lead time requirement,” Stammers said.

The meteorologist estimated that much of the province will see around 10 to 15 centimetres of snow, with areas around the southwest getting up to 20 centimetres.

Saskatoon is on the northern edge of the system, Stammers said, but the Bridge City could be added to the snowfall warning later on, and the city could see 5 to 10 centimetres of snow during the storm.

Unlike the storm that passed through the province earlier this week, Stammers said this system shouldn’t include high winds. The previous storm made travel conditions treacherous on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing words of caution from police forces across the province.

The Saskatchewan RCMP said officers responded to 120 weather-related traffic calls throughout the course of the storm.

The Saskatoon Police Service responded to 22 crashes, while the Regina Police Service responded to 10 collisions.

The @cityofsaskatoon plows and sanders are out on the streets!
But many areas are still quite deep, or slippery, so be careful out there ❄️@CKOMNews pic.twitter.com/k6ABLI5Ls9

— Alex Brown (@AlexBrownYXE) November 19, 2024

“There will be some heavy snow,” Stammers said. “I certainly think travel will probably not be recommended this weekend.”

The storm should move out of the province mid-day on Sunday, he said.

The latest information on the weather alerts can be found on Environment Canada’s website.