Almost all Saskatchewan highways reopened following storm

Nearly all of Saskatchewan’s highways were reopened Tuesday after much of Saskatchewan was hit by a wicked blizzard on Monday.

At 2:45 p.m., the Highway Hotline map showed just one stretch of road — Highway 10 near the Manitoba border — was closed due to winter conditions.

Just before noon, the final stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway that had been closed — from Wolseley to Whitewood — reopened to traffic.

Travel still wasn’t recommended on a number of highways, including stretches of highways 5, 23, 35, 38 and 49.

More information can be found on the Highway Hotline website.

Environment Canada on the storm

As blizzard conditions swept into Manitoba early Tuesday, Shannon Moodie with Environment Canada recapped some elements of the storm in Saskatchewan.

“In Regina, we had winds pick up quite significantly early in the evening, and we had a peak gusts of 93 kilometres per hour,” Moodie said. “But it seems like the strongest winds were in through southeastern Saskatchewan.

“Saskatoon itself, they had blizzard conditions as well. Their winds weren’t quite as strong but still gusting to 80 (km/h), so quite significant.”

The strong wind mixed with the snow made for terrible visibility throughout the province.

#skstorm in Kindersley. Easy to lose sight of vehicles parked around me. Dangerous conditions to be travelling in pic.twitter.com/SVJiCPedwh

— Jenny Hagan LostInSk (@LostInSk) January 31, 2022

As the storm moves its way east, Moodie says the province will be covered in a blanket of cold air.

“As the system departs, we have a ridge building in bringing in that cold Arctic air,” she said. “You know what I’m leading to: Temperatures are plummeting.

“So we’ll definitely see some extreme windchill warnings out for many regions in the next coming days.”