Winnipeggers dig out after biggest snowstorm of the winter

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This article was published 05/03/2018 (2524 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Snow slowed everything to a crawl throughout southern Manitoba Monday.

A storm overnight and into the day Monday dropped 20 centimetres of snow on Winnipeg, and another two to four centimetres could yet fall before it’s all over.

Than means Winnipeg has had more snowfall in the past 24 hours than all of January and February combined. Those two months saw 17 cm in total.

“It’s the biggest snowstorm of the winter,” retired Environment Canada meteorologist Rob Paola said.

With blanket weather warnings through the weekend, and the impact of road and school closures, this storm may seem like a big deal. But it pales in comparison to the record-setting storm of March 4, 1966, where the city was hit with 38 cm of snow and hammered by 112 km-h winds.

However, Paola said Winnipeg doesn’t have to look back very far to see snowstorms that are comparable to the latest one. There were two big storms in December 2016, both of which dumped 25 centimetres of snow on the city.

“It’s a big deal by this winter’s standards because it’s been such a quiet winter,” said Paolo, who has 30-plus years experience forecasting weather on the Prairies and in Ontario.

City to plow residential streets, lanes

Cheryl Anderson, the city’s acting manager of streets maintenance, said beginning Monday evening hundreds of graders, trucks, spreaders and sidewalk plows will work 24 hours a day clearing main streets, bus routes and collector streets. Clearing of back alleys will begin Tuesday morning, with residential streets beginning Wednesday evening.

“We’re anticipating to clear the snow as quickly as we can,” she said. “We’re hoping by the end of the week.”

Anderson said it is unusual for the city’s first residential snow plow of the winter to be in March. She said it’s too soon to estimate what the final cost will be.

“It’s too early to tally the numbers, but I know they will be in the millions,” she said.

City snow-clearing crews hit the streets shortly after midnight. Some 200 separate pieces of equipment have been working an effort to clear roads, which allowed major traffic routes to stay open, though most arteries were moving at slower than normal speed limits.

Plows were put on a rotating schedule to shift back and forth clearing major routes and collector lanes by turn through the day.

And as if it needed mentioning, the city declared the snow route parking ban would remain in place until Wednesday at 7 a.m.

Motorists need to be patient when they see a line of snow plows on the road ahead working together to clear a street, public works spokesman Ken Allen advised Sunday.

“Sometimes motorists cut in between the plows, which is a very hazardous type of practice,” Allen said. “Our operators are focused on plowing the snow and if someone ducks in behind them, it’s hard to see. We want to remind people to stay back and stay safe from snowclearing equipment.”

Earlier in the day, the city warned even emergency crews — fire trucks, ambulances and police — were reporting delays.

“Adverse weather conditions affect travel times for all vehicles on the road, including emergency vehicles. (Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service) is currently experiencing longer response times,” the city said in an update as the morning rush hour wound down.

Four additional ambulances were pressed into service to accommodate poor road and weather conditions, the city said in the update. City officials pledged to monitor emergency response times and put additional resource in place as needed.

Home care services delayed, cancelled

Also delayed or cancelled were home-care services and other community health care. Patients who required urgent care were being prioritized, Monday, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said in a statement.

“If you are a non-urgent home-care client, or have a family member who is, be aware of the potential for service interruption and initiate your backup plan through family or friends,” the health authority said.

For health-care updates, the WRHA was using social media and local radio. To find them, follow winnipegregionalhealthauthority on Facebook, and @WinnipegRHA on Twitter.

At Winnipeg’s international airport, multiple departures and arrivals were displaying as delayed Monday afternoon into the evening.

Winnipeg Transit was experiencing delays and riders were asked to allow for extra travel time.

Many highways throughout the province were closed early Monday, including parts of the Trans-Canada and Highway 75 south to the U.S. border. Both those major highways had reopened by midafternoon.  See the Manitoba Highways website for current highway conditions.

Many rural school divisions closed their schools. School divisions in Winnipeg had cancelled their bus service, but most schools were open and classes were expected to go ahead.

Heavy snow sticking to wires caused outages across southern Manitoba. About 10,000 customers were without power at 8:30 Monday morning. Manitoba Hydro reported poor road conditions and continued snow made it hard to respond to power outages.

— with files from Carol Sanders

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