Tonight is the night: Snowstorm is still coming to Saskatoon

Just a few days after 17 cm of snow fell on Saskatoon, Environment Canada is predicting another 25 cm could fall in Saskatoon, continuing until sometime Sunday morning.

Rose Carlsen, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed on Saturday that there had been no changes to the forecast and the snowstorm was still coming.

“So far, things are shaping up as we expected,” Carlsen told CKOM.

“Guidance has been handling the the early evolution of this system fairly well, and we’re not anticipating making a lot of changes to the forecast this afternoon. Snow is started to develop over southern Alberta and western southwest Saskatchewan today, and the heaviest snow should begin to taper off by tomorrow morning,” she said.

Carlsen said people should also expect lighter snow to linger over the southern half of the province on Sunday as well.

That forecast has Saskatoon city officials, who are already trying to clear the roads, preparing for worsening conditions that could affect not only residents, but emergency services and transit.

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Pamela Goulden-McLeod, director of emergency management, is asking people to get any supplies they need by noon on Saturday, and then stay at home for the rest of the weekend as much as possible.

“This is going to be an inconvenient weekend for you. Get ahead. Plan how you’re going to be prepared for this,” she said.

Pamela Goulden-McLeod, City of Saskatoon director of emergency operations. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

Goulden-McLeod pointed out that the fewer vehicles there are on city streets, the easier it is for emergency services to get around, and for snow removal crews to clear priority roads.

“So please, go get your grocery shopping done, go get your errands done. Stay home and hunker down on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning,” she said.

Goulden-McLeod said the Environment Canada snowfall warning will likely affect much of the southern half of the province, and she urges anyone who must travel, to keep an eye on the provincial government’s highway hotline as well.

“It’s not looking good for the highways outside of Saskatoon, and so we really want you to be safe. Make sure you have an emergency kit in your vehicle, and your phones are charged up if you decide to get in your vehicle,” she said.

Weekend road clearing plans

Goran Saric, director of roadways, fleet, and support for the city, said if at least 25 cm of snow falls over the weekend and mobility is affected to the point that a light vehicle can not travel on city streets, the winter roads emergency response plan may be activated.

“If that plan is activated — and the city manager does have the authority to activate that plan — our plan will be expanded not just to focus on the priority streets, which is our normal practice after a normal snow event, but it will also include grading of local streets,” he said.

That decision won’t likely be made until Sunday. Regardless, Saric expects the snowfall to make driving extremely challenging.

“Snow-covered roads, reduced visibility, increased chances of people with lighter vehicles getting stuck,” he added.

As of Friday evening, there were 26 graders, 13 sanders, five plows and seven sidewalk plows already clearing around the city.

All Priority 1 streets and 80 per cent of Priority 2 streets had been cleared, and 50 per cent of Priority 3 streets had been cleared.

More information on snow clearing can be found here.

Plan to maintain regular transit service

Mike Moellenbeck, director of Saskatoon Transit, said the plan was to maintain regular transit service over the weekend through the storm.

“However, we do advise riders to prepare for delays of up to 20 minutes and more as roadway conditions degrade,” he explained.

Moellenbeck noted that buses may also stay on a street to pick up riders, rather than pull into a bus stop, in order to prevent them from becoming stuck.

“We will keep an eye on road conditions and adjust our service as necessary, and provided notifications to our riders if delays of greater than 20 minutes exist and if detours and/or stops in neighbourhoods become inaccessible,” he added.

He asked that Access Transit customers reschedule any non-urgent appointments, as service may be cancelled.

More information on transit routes can be found here.

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