It’s near whiteout conditions on Northwestern Ontario highways, and heading west into Manitoba as the spring storm of the decade bringing lots of snow in a short period of time has officially begun.
The snow began to fall in the region early Wednesday morning (April 13, 2022) beginning to cover highways. The region is expected to get between 20-45 cm of snow from Wednesday through until Friday.
Ontario 511 is reporting as of 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday that Highway 17 just west of Vermilion Bay and west of Kenora is snow-covered with “fair visibility”.
Highway 596 to Minaki, 658 to Redditt, the Kenora By-pass, 671 to Grassy Narrows, and 71 to Fort Frances are snow-covered.
Highway 17 from just west of Vermilion Bay to Dryden is being classified as bare and wet roads with good visibility.
Highway 105 to Red Lake and 72 to Sioux Lookout are also bare with good visibility at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday.
Moving into Manitoba near Falcon Lake towards Winnipeg on the TransCanada Highway the road conditions are blowing snow, snow-covered with fair visibility.
The Manitoba RCMP issued a statement on Tuesday night (April 12, 2022), that they will close all major highways in Southeastern Manitoba. On Wednesday morning they said they will continue to assess the highway conditions.
At this time, Highway 75 from Morris to the Canada/U.S. border, and Highway 1 from Elie to Austin are officially closed.
Keep up to date with all weather conditions with the REMR Roofing Storm Tracker.
RCMP says Highway conditions continue to deteriorate with more official closures possible throughout the day.
The Manitoba RCMP urges caution if you must travel and stay off closed highways. The most up-to-date info on highway & road closures is available at: http://manitoba511.ca.