Updated Saturday, March 18th at 7:33 a.m. - Shortly after 9pm Friday evening, Highway 75 from the U.S. border to Winnipeg was reopened. It's currently reported as partly ice covered with fair visibility in blowing and drifting snow.
As of Saturday morning at 7:30am, Highway 14 was reopened from the junction of Highway 75 to Plum Coulee.
Also, all Blowing Snow Advisories ended in the Pembina and Red River Valleys Friday night. Winds are expected to be relatively light on Saturday.
Jayme-Lyn Romanski shared the photo at the top of this story, and told PembinaValleyOnline that was only one of several semis that were in the ditch along that stretch of Highway 3.
"Not just this semi, there were others in the ditch too," she said late Friday afternoon. "And that new stretch of new road on Highway 3 from Carman to Winnipeg is a sheet of ice."
You can find our initial story with CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner, below.
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For the third time this work week, morning commuters are dealing with icy and snow packed conditions across the Pembina and Red River Valleys.
The pattern of blowing, drifting, melting, sticking and freezing continued Thursday, with the already less than ideal road conditions, due to Wednesday night's snowfall in some areas, worsening throughout the day," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "The left-overs, if you want to call them that, from Thursday are what's greeting us Friday morning, in addition to more blowing and drifting snow that will increase throughout the day."
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A strong winter-storm that tracked through the U.S. Mid-west yesterday, will be impacting Ontario today, with Southern Manitoba getting the far western edge of that system.
"Yes, we will see some light snow off the back-side of that powerful storm, but the strong winds will more than likely be the story with this one," he said. "The counter-clockwise spin of the low, and how intense it is, coupled with the geography of the Red River Valley, will combine to see northwesterly gusts up to 70 km/h by late Friday morning or early this afternoon. Between the snow left from Wednesday night's event, which primarily impacted areas south of Highway 23, and the additional flakes today, blowing snow and reduced visibility will be a factor this afternoon and Friday evening."
He noted there will be little accumulation from today's light snow, perhaps a couple centimeters at most, but it will be more than enough, along with the strong wind gusts expected, to cause blowing snow. Winds will diminish late Friday evening, and remain light for Saturday.
Get your weekend weather details here
Temperatures will remain well below average for this time of year, as that northerly flow continues to push chilly air into our region. -9 to -12 is where Southern Manitoba will range Friday, which is well off our seasonal average of 0 for a daytime high. Both Saturday and Sunday will be mainly sunny, with temperatures trending warmer throughout the weekend.
"It's looking like Monday and Tuesday will dip below average again, as high pressure over the region and a trough in the jet stream, allow more cool air to arrive," said Sumner. "That's expected to be followed by a return to average temperatures for March toward mid next week."