After one day of calm, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says a second Alberta clipper storm will begin to hit western Saskatchewan early Friday morning.
“Around midnight you might start to see some snow starting in the west,” said ECCC scientist Christy Climenhaga.
She said the southern half of the province will see strong winds gusting between 50 and 70 kilometres per hour, and between five and 10 centimetres of snow, but Friday’s system will be less severe than Wednesdays.
That storm saw wind speeds up to 128 kilometers per hour in the town of Eastend, Sask., according to ECCC.
Areas around the Yellowhead Highway will see strong winds throughout the morning and the Trans-Canada Highway corridor from Regina toward Brandon, Man., is expected to get the heaviest snowfall and strongest winds, Climenhaga said.
Having two systems “back-to-back” will create problems, she said.
Wednesday’s Alberta Clipper system is now in Ontario, but it created large swaths of mayhem in Saskatchewan, including a crash that killed a man in southern Saskatchewan.
RCMP say a 33-year-old man from Winnipeg died on the Trans-Canada highway Wednesday when the truck he was driving collided with another semi during stormy conditions.
According to police, the driver was killed in a serious crash involving three semi-trucks on Wednesday around 2:25 p.m. CST at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 201, east of Broadview.
“The driver of one of those semis was pronounced deceased at the scene,” RCMP spokesperson Keely Grasser said during a Thursday news conference on the aftermath of the storm.
The driver and passenger of the other truck involved in the crash were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The third driver did not report any injuries.
Police said two of the semis collided and a third left the road, but “investigators are determining whether it was also involved in the collision or took evasive action to avoid it.”
Broadview RCMP are investigating the crash with the help of a collision reconstructionist.
Police said the Manitoba man’s family has been notified.
RCMP said they received 82 crash reports between 4 p.m. CST on Wednesday and 7 a.m. CST on Thursday. There were also 25 other weather-related reports during the same time period.
“Really this is just the beginning of winter driving in Saskatchewan. This is the first big wallop that we’ve got,” Grasser said.
RCMP are urging people to be prepared for winter driving and to check the Highway Hotline before setting out.
One bad crash near Secretan, about 130 kilometres west of Regina, caused extensive delays early Wednesday morning after a semi-truck went off the road and caught fire within view of a highway traffic camera.
Debris from Wednesday’s semi crash near Secretan is still being cleaned up, restricting the Trans- Canada Highway to one westbound lane. (Highway Hotline)
Alycia Jackson was on the Trans-Canada Highway on Wednesday morning when she spotted the crash near Secretan.
“The accident literally just happened like five to 10 minutes before I got there, because it was just the trucks stopped on the highway, there were no emergency services or anything there yet.”
Jackson said emergency services showed up after about 30 minutes, extinguished the flames and cleared enough debris to open a lane.
She said she got there at about 8:30 a.m. CST and spent the next three hours waiting before the jam started moving, and she was able to turn around and go home.
WATCH | RCMP closes Trans-Canada Highway near Secretan, Sask., after semi crash on Dec. 17:
RCMP closes Trans-Canada Highway near Secretan Sask. after semi crash
A semi lit on fire on the Trans-Canada Highway near Secretan, Sask., early Wednesday, as freezing rain, snow and gusting winds made travel treacherous.
Regina residents tackle post-storm conditions
Rosemont neighbourhood resident David Voss says it took about an hour and a half of “strenuous” effort to shovel clear his parking area.
“I’m an old guy, so I just chiseled at it,” Voss said.
Canada Post letter carrier Karl Marcos said the snow made mail delivery more difficult Thursday.
“Lots of people haven’t shovelled yet,” Marcos said. “It’s like a challenge for every mailbox.”
Canada Post worker Karl Marcos says he had a few ‘close calls’ but didn’t fall in the icy conditions on Thursday after the city was hit hard by a winter storm. (Germain Wilson/ CBC News)
City worker Anthony Siguenza spent Thursday out in the cold doing parking enforcement in Regina’s downtown. He said conditions were better than he was expecting.
“So far, the city has kinda been doing it’s thing,” Siguenza said, noting that street sweepers had been out.
He said that anyone driving downtown Thursday should park in the Cornwall Centre parkade rather than on the street.
Saskatoon declares snow event
Saskatoon has declared a snow event after about 11 centimetres fell during Wednesday’s storm.
The city has 30 graders, six plows, 15 sanders and nine sidewalk blowers working to clear the snow. Contractor crews joined forces with the city’s snow maintenance team to clean up priority roads, like Circle Drive and other major streets.
The city is asking people to use caution around snow crew equipment, especially when in low visibility conditions.
Regina police said they had responded to 24 crashes since 10 a.m. CST Wednesday, most of which were likely the result of the weather. Three of those crashes caused injuries that appeared to be minor.
Saskatoon police said the road incidents have been minor since 4 p.m. CST on Wednesday.
“It would seem as though many people opted to stay off the roads or adapt their driving behaviour for winter conditions as we only received six reports of collisions for that timeframe; none of which resulted in injuries being reported,” Saskatoon police said.
CAA spokesperson Lana Gervais said many people are playing it safe and staying off the road. While conditions are expected to improve, the timing depends on the area.
“It really depends on how much rain that the area got before the snow,” Gervais said. “In Saskatoon, I understand you guys got a little more snow. There’s been a lot of calls in the towing area for Saskatoon. You’re best off to contact your local towing company there.”
WATCH | CBC’s weather specialist Miki Wolf digs into Wednesday’s storm:
Orange-level Alberta clipper? Sask. winter storm explained
CBC Saskatchewan’s weather specialist Miki Wolf spoke with warning preparedness meteorologist Danielle Desjardin to learn more about the unique blizzard affecting most of southern and central Saskatchewan on Wednesday.
Storm damages power infrastructure
Wednesday’s storm also left much of the southwest part of the province without power, including the communities of Eastend and Frontier, along with areas surrounding Maple Creek, Gull Lake and Shaunavon.
SaskPower expects power to be restored to these communities around 6 p.m. CST on Thursday.
In the morning, SaskPower reported that crews were on site north of Gull Lake attending to downed power poles. It expected power to be restored around noon on Thursday.
SaskPower is still investigating the cause of an outage affecting the area of Kipling, Sask.
Jenny Hagan, a storm chaser and severe weather specialist, spent the blizzard in Kindersley, one of the first areas in the province hit by the Alberta clipper.
“By 6 a.m. [Wednesday] it was pouring rain here in west central Saskatchewan,” said Hagan. That transitioned to snowfall in the afternoon around 2 p.m., and that’s when the winds kicked in. So a lot of blowing snow out there.”
Hagan said the storm left several semis jackknifed from the combination of icy roads and windy conditions.
“If you’re ever stranded, just make sure you try and get off the road as far as possible because traffic coming along may not necessarily see you,” Hagan said.
“Get on your winter gear, and also make sure you get out every once in a while to make sure your exhaust pipe is clear of snow and not drifting around. You definitely don’t want carbon monoxide poisoning.”
