Candle Lake woman wakes up to large snow pile around home

Residents and municipalities are still occupied with snow clearing in central Saskatchewan. Jasmine Pelleiter reports.

People and municipalities are still occupied with snow clearing in central Saskatchewan.

Candle Lake resident Donna Litzenberger said the snow in the area is a bit more than she’s used to.

“We’ve been up here about 20 years, and we’ve never seen as much snow as we’ve had this winter,” she said.

Litzenberger woke up Wednesday to see that snow had piled up around her home.

“When you try and shovel it, it sticks to the shovel, or it sticks to the snow blower and kind of bungs it up,” said Litzenberger. “It’s also very heavy, so hard on the back. Got to do just a little bit at a time.”

Environment Canada says that some areas in central Saskatchewan still have more than 70 centimeters on the ground in mid-April.

Recent mild temperatures have made the snow heavy, dense and tough to clear.

“It’s often easier to move that stuff as soon as it happens,” said Environment Canada Meteorologist Terri Lang.

“Because it’s fluffy, it hasn’t compacted. There hasn’t been this freezing and refreezing.”

While Prince Albert has less snow than communities north of the treeline, snow clearing is still an ongoing process.

Lang said Prince Albert usually sees about 10 centimeters of snowfall during the month of April, but halfway through the month the city has already received twice that amount.

In November, the annual budget for snow management was approved at about $1.5 million.

“Snow-clearing costs are closely monitored, and we regularly review spending as part of our budget oversight,” read a city statement to CTV News.

“As operations are still ongoing, we’re not able to share a specific amount at this stage. The City manages its budget with a reserve in order to provide additional budget, if needed, for busy winter maintenance seasons.”

Three centimeters fell in Prince Albert on Wednesday with more expected heading into Thursday. The area currently has a 43-centimetre snowpack.

On average, the Prince Albert area has just two centimetres of snow left on the ground by the end of April. With two weeks to go, only time will tell how much snow residents can expect on the ground May 1.