Record-Breaking Blizzard Takes Aim at Saskatchewan This Weekend; Up to 50cm of Snow Possible by Monday

It has been a fairly quiet start to the winter across much of Saskatchewan but that is about to change substantially as we watch the potential for a dangerous blizzard that will affect much of Southern and Central Saskatchewan this weekend. Wind gusts up to 50=75km/h combined with intense snowfall rates will produce blowing snow and causing near-zero visibility out on the roads with the worst conditions expected throughout the day on Sunday.

It’s quite possible that this storm could be a record-breaker with widespread snowfall totals that we haven’t seen in quite a long time. The hardest-hit regions could see as much as 30-50cm of snow over the next few days and that might even be a low estimate. It’s not out of the question that some areas pick up 60 or even 75cm in localized regions. Outside of the heavy snowfall, there is also the potential for several hours of an ice pellet and freezing rain mix in Southeastern Saskatchewan late Sunday into Monday morning which could lead to a light coating of ice on untreated surfaces and icy driving conditions.

We expect the first round of snowfall to begin early Saturday morning with some light to moderate snowfall moving into the Western part of the province from Alberta. This will continue into the day on Saturday but will mainly affect the central part of our regions such as Kindersley, Saskatoon and Prince Albert where the heavier bands of snow will be located. The first round of snow isn’t expected to bring much snowfall to the more southern part of Saskatchewan, but the second round won’t be as forgiving so don’t think it’s over when you see little accumulation by the end of Saturday.

As we head into Sunday morning this is when conditions will really start to deteriorate as we see the main system track into the province and the wind starts to pick up. Very heavy snow will stretch from Southwestern Saskatchewan through the southcentral region (Moose Jaw etc.) and into the Hudson Bay area starting Sunday afternoon. Current indications suggest that those in the southeastern corner of the province including Regina, Weyburn and Yorkton could start with a few hours of ice pellets or freezing rain into Sunday evening although it’ll begin to transition over to heavy snow from west to east.

By Sunday evening, conditions will be downright dangerous with snowfall rapidly accumulating combined with strong wind gusts through Southern Saskatchewan. We will likely see some highway closures due to the blowing snow and whiteout conditions so if possible, consider staying home until conditions improve on Monday. The system will begin to taper off during the early morning hours on Monday as it moves off into Northern Manitoba and should be fully done by the noon hour.

When it comes to total snowfall accumulation by Monday, there will be a wide swath from Shaunavon, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon and Hudson Bay that picks up generally between 30-50cm of snow. As we mentioned above, the potential for some areas to overachieve that forecast and see as much as 60-75cm is there. Now, the next zone that includes the Regina area is tricky to forecast given that they’ll initially start with some ice pellets. How fast the ice pellets turn over to snow will determine exactly how much snowfall that region receives. At this point, we believe it will hold the totals below the 30cm mark for Regina so we have them in the 20-30cm zone but if they switch over quicker than expected then up to 40cm isn’t out of the question for them.

Snow totals will be lower the further north you go due to the lack of precipitation and towards the southeast corner of the province where freezing rain will be the more predominant precipitation type. On the topic of freezing rain, several hours of freezing rain which could be heavy at times is expected through the Estevan and Moosomin area during the afternoon and evening on Sunday. Up to 3-6mm of ice accretion is possible in this area which combined with the strong wind gusts could bring down tree branches and cause localized power outages along with icy roads.