A blizzard that slammed southeastern Saskatchewan is slowly starting to cease, according to Environment Canada.

After Estevan was bombarded by heavy snowfall all day Wednesday, regional meteorologist Terri Lang says the system is slowing tracking east into northwestern Ontario, despite a light snow still falling in the city.

"Most of the snow has eased off," said Lang, adding that the wind is still creating blowing snow and Estevan could still see up to five more centimetres over the course of Thursday. "But for the most part, the storm has weakened and moved off into northwestern Ontario."

Although Environment Canada doesn't officially measure snow in Estevan anymore, their best estimate is that the city received somewhere in the range of 30-40 centimetres since Tuesday night. If that's accurate, it would be just the third time since 1902 that the city has received more than 30 centimetres this late into the spring. The city got 38 centimetres in 1909 and 35 centimetres in 1950, Environment Canada data showed.

"Based on the southeast corner of our province, you know, it was a historic storm that way," Lang said. "And probably in that southwest corner of Manitoba...they've probably got something to say about it as well."

Car buried in snowA car barely visible in an Estevan parking lot. (Photo credit: Nolan Kowal)

Lang said this was a North America wide event.

"There were tornados in Texas over the last couple days...it's all part of the same weather system," she said. "So we're getting heavy snow up here and they're getting  tornados down there, but that tells you sort of how big the system is, and where the air associated with it came from, and that's from the Gulf of Mexico. Mixing with that cold arctic air to the north."

"When you combine those two, that's when you get sort of these explosive Colorado lows that give these really heavy snowfalls."

With the worst of the storm over, Lang said travel conditions should significantly improve on Friday.

"Definitely just because we won't have the strong winds, it's the strong winds that cause the issue," she said. "There'll probably be a little bit of drifting snow and that type of thing, but nothing like what we saw over the last couple days."

Estevan could still see five to eight more centimetres this weekend, though it won't be accompanied by strong winds.

 

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