SASKATOON — Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a winter storm warning that is now in effect in the city of Saskatoon, according to Warning and Preparedness Meteorologist Terri Lang in a media briefing hosted by the City’s Media Relations on Tuesday morning.
“As you can see, just in the last few minutes, our special weather statement has been upgraded to a winter storm warning. That means we're expecting a whole mix of, well, weather conditions to come our way,” said Lang.
“It looks a little benign out there right now but if you look at the radar, the rain, freezing rain is just a little way off and then turning to snow very quickly that will start moving through the city in the next few hours and the wind will also started to really pick up,” said Lang.
Weather.com has forecasted that there will be 70 per cent chance of snow as the winter storm that brought heavy snow and freezing rain on Monday night continues Tuesday. The winter storm is caused by a low-pressure system with central Saskatchewan expecting heavy snow overnight.
Lang said temperatures right now are above freezing.
“It's actually the Hawaiian air, this system came from Hawaii [and the] same system that wreaked havoc in British Columbia. So, that warm air that you're feeling right now is going to quickly pull out and we are going to see temperatures fall below freezing and that will happen quickly this afternoon.”
Weather.com’s advisory also stated that the band of freezing rain moved into the area last night with heavy snow starting to fall as early as Monday afternoon and is expected to spread eastward throughout Tuesday evening.
Lang added that wind gusts are expected to exceed 70 to 80 kilometres per hour that could even reach over 100 kph.
“And with snow falling, that’s going to produce a widespread snow and blowing snow conditions through the city and of course on the outskirts of the city.”
Snowfall, however, according to Lang is not at the same category last year where a winter storm dumped 30 to 40 centimetres of snow.
“We are expecting upwards of 10 to 15 centimetres of snow before all is said and done. The bulk of the storm will probably fall through the afternoon and into the evening time tapering off after midnight sometime.”
She said it will be hard to measure, though, when the winds blow the snow sideways.
“The winds will stay up though so we will have issues with blowing snow probably while into the overnight period … This year the wind will really be the issue and blowing all of that snow around. But it won’t sort of not in the same category we had last year.”
There will also be a break from the heaviest snowfall on Tuesday before the next band moves in later in the day. Winds are expected to pickup this afternoon with gusts reaching 90 kph and with blowing snow could cause reduced visibility. The snow band is forecasted to produce in higher amounts on Tuesday evening.
Saskatoon is expecting lower snow fall but will experience reduced visibility due to the blowing snow with wind gusts of almost 90 kph. Snow fall will end early Wednesday.
Lang added conditions are expected to improve on Wednesday as the system moves into Manitoba.
“So that's really going to cause some issues once the freezing rain occurs and the snow starts to pile up. We will be in cold conditions [but] by Thursday morning, we're going to have some higher wind chill values probably towards the minus 20-degree value.”
She said that things would be different in Southern Saskatchewan like in Regina.
“They won't see as much snow down there, but they're going to see the stronger winds. We've already seen wind gusts in excess of 100 kph down in that southwest corner, and that's going to spread eastward during the day. Regina and southeastern sections can expect winds [over] 100 kph. There will be some snow wrapping around through the day down there too, but only about five centimetres worth.”
“However, they've got the warm temperatures too and they'll see the temperatures really start to drop as the winds kick in and the snow kicks in. 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 kph, it really creates some issues down there. So pretty much three quarters of the province is affected by this particular storm.”
