Another week begins as we find ourselves digging out from a weekend snowfall in Saskatchewan.
Freezing rain began falling on Saturday, but by Sunday, the precipitation turned into snow as conditions began to drop.
Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Chris Stammers explains the weather front moved in from the west.
“Really strong Alberta clipper system came through into Sunday, giving a mixed bag of precipitation, lots of rain, freezing rain, wet slushy snow across the province.”
He added, total amounts were variable throughout Saskatchewan, depending on the location.
Temperatures reached +5° on Saturday, before the cold air began moving in on Sunday.
A snowfall warning was issued ahead of the weekend’s winter activity, Stammers added there was less snow than what was originally forecasted.
“Just because of the warmer air kind of kept things as rain or freezing rain or very wet snow that melted.”
There was around 4 cm of snow that fell in the Humboldt area.
The snowfall did cause issues on the roads in the province on Sunday said Stammers, with many highways reporting travel not recommended advisories including the Humboldt area,
On Monday morning, roads heading west and east around the Humboldt area were reporting partly covered conditions with some loose, swirling drifting snow along with slippery sections.
Highways heading north and south were reporting covered conditions with some icy conditions.
The good news is that the snowfall has stopped for the most part, but we could see some extremely cold temperatures this week Stammers explained.
“In the Humboldt area, does look like we will be dipping down to the -30°C mark on Wednesday and Thursday, very close to our extreme cold criteria, which are windchills of -40°C or colder.”
Stammers expects extreme cold warnings to be issued for the Humboldt in the middle of the week. He noted that it should be a short stay for the bitterly cold temperatures as it appears temperatures will rise to seasonal averages around the weekend.