Rain and snow lead to icy roads across southern Saskatchewan

A combination of freezing rain and snow created slippery conditions across Saskatchewan Thursday morning.

The Highway Hotline had travel not recommended warnings across the province on several stretches. Kindersley RCMP reported 20 crashes along Highway 7 Wednesday afternoon as freezing rain began to soak the highway.

Reports of black ice on parts of Highway 1 Thursday morning caused drivers to tighten the grip on their steering wheels. Pat McDonald found the roads to be less than favourable around Moosomin.

“(Highway) 1 was black ice and it was very slippery, and (Highway) 8 heading north was lightly snow-covered but very slippery as well,” he said.

Part of the Trans-Canada Highway was closed Thursday morning following a collision west of Tompkins. It was reopened by 11:30 a.m.

Check the latest conditions on the Highway Hotline.

Working on Queen City Streets

Regina’s streets were also extremely icy Thursday morning as rain and snow fell.
 
The City of Regina confirms eight sanding trucks were out overnight reacting as the rain turned to ice.
 
As the morning commute began, the numbers of trucks working increased to 10.
 
Roadways manager Chris Warren says there is little prevention that can be done by crews because of the dry salt and sand mixture that is used.
 
“If we applied it to the roads before it started to snow, traffic that’s driving over it, the wind, things like that, can blow it to the curb, blow it off the road way and it becomes ineffective,” he explained by phone.
 
Warren prefers to have the crews out when the weather is happening.
 
“We make sure we have the equipment in place and the people in place that we can cycle our Category 1 and 2 roads as the snow starts to fall.”