Winter Returns to Saskatchewan With a Multi-Day Snowstorm Starting Sunday; Locally Up to 30-50cm of Snow in the Hardest-Hit Regions by Tuesday

After a rather mild start to the weekend across Saskatchewan with double-digit daytime highs on Saturday, there will be a rude awakening as we head throughout the day on Sunday and the beginning of the week. Temperatures have already cooled down substantially during the early part of Sunday and the temperatures are only expected to get colder later in the day. By Sunday evening, we’ll see much of South-central and southeastern Saskatchewan at the freezing mark or slightly below and dropping several degrees below the freezing mark after midnight. The colder air will be accompanied by a stalled out low-pressure system that will linger and merge with another system over the next few days providing ample moisture for persistent moderate to heavy snowfall beginning Sunday afternoon and continue through Monday and even into Tuesday. Total accumulation over the 72 hour period could exceed the 30cm mark in some areas within Southeastern Saskatchewan including Yorkton. Please pay attention to the fact that this snowfall will be spread out over the span of 3 days so it won’t have as big of an impact compared to if it all came down within a 24 hour period.

Current weather radar as of Sunday afternoon indicates that an area of precipitation has developed over Southeastern Saskatchewan and has begun to switch over from rain to wet snow as temperatures slowly cool down. Regina has likely already started to see the wet snow with the Yorkton area switching over in the coming hours. The first round of snow will be ongoing throughout the evening and overnight into early Monday morning focused on the Yorkton, Regina and Moosomin area. This band of snow will be quite narrow so the heaviest accumulation will be very localized and not everyone will see it. We will see the snow become more scattered and lighter after sunrise on Monday with expected accumulation on the ground as you wake up ranging from 15-25cm for the corridor between Regina and Yorkton and between 5-15cm for other areas including the City of Regina.

A second round of snow will enter the eastern part of the province as the previous system that brought us the snowfall tonight will merge with a secondary system over Northern Ontario. The precipitation with this newly merged system will wrap back around into Saskatchewan late Monday and continue overnight into Tuesday. This round won’t be as intense as the one tonight, but it will be more sustained and widespread lasting through much of the day on Tuesday. Snowfall will finally come to an end as we head into the evening hours on Tuesday with only flurries lingering around past the midnight hour. Expect an additional 10-20cm of snowfall accumulation throughout Southeastern Saskatchewan with locally 20-25cm in some areas closer to the Manitoba border.

The total accumulation from this multi-day event could reach as high as 30-50cm in a zone through parts of Southeastern Saskatchewan between Regina and Yorkton. Keep in mind that this is very temperature-dependent and with the ground still wet from the earlier rainfall, the snow may struggle to stick to the ground at first and resulting in lower snow totals. The rest of Southeastern Saskatchewan can expect general amounts between 15-30cm depending on your location. The further north and west you go, the less accumulation that is expected from this storm. Looking at around 10-20cm for the Moose Jaw and Swift Current area and between 5-10cm for Saskatoon.