Blast of snow hits Northern Sask. amid mild November

It’ll be short, but not so sweet.

Snow is in the forecast for Northern Saskatchewan Wednesday, and falling flakes caused problems early on for drivers.

“A couple semis pulling over and stuff like that. It’s pretty bad conditions, slippery,” said Shane Madden, who was driving on Highway 41, from Wakaw to Saskatoon, when he encountered poor visibility.

“I ended up turning around a few miles in.”

Driver Tammy Rose was on the highway from Wilke to North Battleford when she passed a plow and noticed tracks going off the road.

“We were down to 50 kilometres per hour,” she said. “On the highway it was all slush.”

Justin Shaer, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said an Alberta Clipper is tracking quickly across Saskatchewan.

“What we’re left with is this trough basically lingering through the province, so more or less north of the Yellowhead it’s going to be snow,” he said.

While Environment Canada is calling for five centimetres, around two inches, of snow for Saskatoon Wednesday – areas in the north will likely see more.

“Saskatoon will kind of be on the southern edge of it, but looking at the radar now – Prince Albert is in the thick of it,” he said.

Other areas expected to receive more snow include The Battlefords region, and further east in Nipawin and Hudson Bay.

Shear noted for the most part, temperatures in Northern Saskatchewan are expected to hover around -1 C and 0 C.

“By the end of the day, with these warm temperatures at the start, maybe you might only see a few centimetres (of snow) on the ground accumulate.”

The wet weather is expected to track out of Saskatchewan by the end of the day.