Winter has arrived early in southeastern Saskatchewan where Mother Nature has dumped up to 20 centimetres of snow in some areas.
Environment Canada reports that a combination of high-speed winds and falling snow will reduce visibility on roads in the southeastern part of the province on Wednesday morning. The winds are gusting at speeds of between 70 and 90 km/h and are expected to gradually die down as the day progresses.
A provincial government hotline that provides information on highway conditions advises drivers that "winter conditions" are present in many areas.
For now, CTV Regina's J.C. Garden said the winds are creating problems for Saskatchewan drivers who are waking up to find their cars and local roads covered in snow.
"It's just created snow drifts that are going to make the morning commute completely unbearable, if even possible," Garden told CTV's Canada AM by phone from Regina on Wednesday morning.
Garden said the RCMP reported dozens of accidents taking place on Tuesday evening when the storm began.
Early reports had suggested that the snow would likely melt after it hit the ground. But when the snow started piling up, Garden said area residents realized it was time to break out their snow shovels.
"Now people are left to kind of figure it out and like me, get their shovels out and get back to that back-breaking labour we all know and definitely do not love," Garden said.
George Kournouis, a professional storm chaser and the host of the "Angry Planet" TV show, said the unseasonable conditions were being caused by a fast-growing low pressure system known as a weather bomb.
In fact, it is one of the strongest low-pressure systems on record to move through North America, he said.
"It's deeper and stronger than the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975," Kournouis said. "If this had happened over the warm waters of the Caribbean, it would have been a category 2 or 3 hurricane."
