Saskatoon and area met with high winds, freezing rain, snow

SASKATOON -

Saskatoon is expected to get slammed with a severe winter storm Tuesday afternoon, with freezing rain, wind gusts, and snow.

"We are expecting wind gusts in excess of 70 to 80 kilometers per hour, but even see a gust to 90 kilometers per hour," said Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Terri Lang.

"With snow falling that's going to produce some widespread snow and blowing snow conditions through the city and of course on the outskirts of the city."

Lang said we won’t see as much snow as the blizzard in November 2020, with 10 to 15 centimetres expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon and continue falling through the evening, tapering off after midnight.

Conditions will improve Wednesday morning, before colder temperatures arrive on Thursday.

"By Thursday morning we're going to have some higher windchill values, probably towards the minus 20 degree value," she said.

City of Saskatoon director of roadways, fleet, and support Goren Saric said crews were out putting salt on bridges, Circle Drive, and on and off ramps on Monday night.

"As the snow begins, city crews will plow Circle Drive and on and off ramps until the snow stops, as well as during the event," he said. "The focus will be on keeping all other driving lanes open on high-traffic priority streets, and sanding and salting of high speed roads as well as high-traffic intersections."

Saric said Circle Drive, highways in and out of the city from both sides, and high-traffic streets like 22nd Street, Eighth Street, and College Drive are considered priority level one streets and will be cleared within the first 12 hours.

Saric said residential streets won’t be a priority to be cleared, and is advising against unnecessary travel Tuesday evening.

Monday’s City of Saskatoon financial forecast revealed a $5.7 million deficit was being driven by $3 million spent on snow removal following the blizzard in November 2020, and Saric said the city is looking at more efficient ways to rollout snow removal.

"Introducing technology such as GPS and some other apps that we are currently exploring, and we've also learned a number of lessons from the last year’s blizzard as well," he said.

City of Saskatoon director of emergency planning Pamela Goulden-McLeod said the city's cold weather strategy, an initiative created with Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP), will be activated for today.

"This partnership is multiple agencies and organizations working together to ensure that everyone has access to a safe emergency shelter during extreme weather events," she said. "The triggers have been met for that activation and the partnership will be working to identify people in need of emergency shelter and supporting them in accessing that shelter as quickly as possible."

Goulden-McLeod said the Saskatoon Transit safe bus program is an option for people who find themselves stuck outside.

"If you're lost, cold, scared or hurt, hold up your hand palm-out in the direction of an approaching transit bus, or go to a parked bus and the operator will stop, contact emergency services and provide shelter to the next terminal," she said.

Lang said three-quarters of the province will be affected by this storm; the southern portion of the province won’t see as much snow, about five centimetres worth, but should see increased winds.

"We've already seen winds in excess of 100 kilometers per hour down in that southwest corner and that's going to spread eastward during the day, so Regina, southeastern sections can expect wind gusts in excess of 100 kilometers per hour," she said.

"They're probably going to have a lot of issues with snow and blowing snow, when you combine falling snow with wind gusts of 100 kilometers per hour."