Photo by Ross Lavigne

By Hayley Ferguson

Post Winter Storm

City working on clean up after winter storm hits

Sep 30, 2019 | 5:07 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – For Crescent Heights resident, Mike Dunn, the amount of snow that fell this past weekend in the Medicine Hat was an unwelcome sight.

“We’re retired now, so we’re usually gone south before this stuff hits here. So this is what some may call a treat, and some of us might call it a nightmare.” Dunn laughed.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says they recorded 10 centimetres at the airport this weekend.

While Dunn was able to avoid the worst of it by staying inside on Sunday, some weren’t so lucky.

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Medicine Hat Police say there were about 10 collisions reported in town between Saturday evening and Monday afternoon.

“The first usually catches drivers off guard. But I think with our weather this time, with the roadways more wet instead of icy and slippery, we were lucky there. But people will not adjust their speed, their braking distance. And sometimes their not clearing their windows well enough so they are not seeing. Reducing their own visibility,” said Sergeant Gerald Sadlemyer.

Tow truck companies were all extremely busy this weekend with visibility to under 100 metres in some places.

“It was crazy. Sunday, winch out everywhere. Some we couldn’t get to, they had to get rides in. It’s been kind of one of those times where you wish it would slow down,” Wilie’s 24Hr Towing’s Lesley Konosky said. “We’re trying to get there, every towing company in Medicine Hat is trying to be to where we need to be.”

Dunn family works to shovel driveway

The city’s municipal works department was extremely busy too.

“We had crews out maintaining the roads while the storm was going on. And they did that all through the day and throughout the night. Then at 4 a.m., we had a large crew this morning to come in and plow some roads so that it was ready for the Monday morning commute,” acting general manager of the department Jeremy Petryshyn said.

While Environment Canada says temperatures will go up, they still won’t reach the average temperature for a few days.

“As the system moves eastward and off to Ontario we will have a ridge of warm air start to push in from the Pacific. And that will bring in some warmer temperatures then we have been having. But still a little bit below seasonal,” Said meteorologist Sara Hoffman.

Because of that, Hoffman expects it to be a slower melt.

Which eases the city’s stress about any ideas of flooding.

“We really don’t have any concerns because the catch basins are all open. There’s no freezing going on. So all the drainage should just happen naturally through our system,” Petryshyn explained.

Although throughout the week Medicine Hat will experience those below-average temperatures, it is expected to get back up to the average September temperature of 16 degrees on Sunday.