Massive snowfall was snow joke

Details

Published on Thursday, March 8, 2018

Just under a foot of snow blankets Neepawa & surrounding area

By Eoin Devereux

Neepawa Banner & Press

Old Man Winter decided to remind Manitoba just who’s the boss one last time, with a massive snowfall earlier in the week. As much as 30 centimetres (cm), or just under 12 inches of snow fell overnight on Sunday, Mar. 4. That system, deemed ‘The Colorado Low’ by meteorologists, was followed up on Monday by another 5-15 cm in some areas. 

The winter storm ended up shutting down several provincial roads for a time, making it difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow. One such road that was impacted was Highway  Number 10 from Brandon to Minnedosa and Dauphin, which was closed on Monday as a precautionary measure.

Environment Canada forecaster Natalie Hasel said that most parts of the province have dealt with average precipitation levels throughout the winter, so this sudden large surge of snow had some a little unprepared. 

“There are many locations that are not used to the amount of snow that fell overnight. In some ways, this wasn’t your typical southern Manitoba storm, but more closely resembles what you might see out east, with thick, wet snow causing issues,” Hasel said.

After the worst of the system passed through the region, Neepawa and area residents began the process of digging out from under the massive accumulation. The two local companies, P. Baker and Rob Smith and Son, who have been contracted by the town to do snow removal, were out early Monday morning. Their initial focus was on clearing the driving paths on the main roads, including Mountain Avenue and Hamilton Street. To accomplish that, large portions of snow were pushed to the centre of those roads, allowing for vehicles to drive without fear of getting stuck on a main throughway. As for secondary streets, they remained snow packed for the early part of the week, causing some problems for vehicles without four-wheel drive. There were several reports to the Neepawa Banner & Press office of a few stranded cars during the early part of the week.

Town of Neepawa manager of operations Denis Saquet noted that as the week progressed, P. Baker and Smith and Son were able to clear out the excess snow from the main roads and start diverting their attention to secondary streets. He did add however, that some of the early progress was slightly stalled due to the fact that the snow that was accumulated was so wet and heavy.

One reader corroberated that sentiment with a bit of a science experiment. The person contacted the Banner & Press to inform us that four cups of snow melted down to a cup of water, so at 25 per cent moisture, it was indeed a wet snowfall.