Spring snowfall brings challenging driving conditions to Saskatchewan highways

WATCH: Travel was treacherous in parts of southeast Sask., as a snowstorm blasted its way through the province. Angela Stewart reports.

A late April snowfall is creating challenging driving conditions on highways in parts of southern Saskatchewan on Tuesday.

According to the Highway Hotline, travel is not recommended on Highway 1 from Wolseley to the Manitoba border.

“We’ve got our snow plow crews out there and treating road conditions and obviously updating the Highway Hotline. Key thing is make sure you know before you go and check that Highway Hotline before you head out,” said Dan Palmer with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways.

Loose snow, slush and ice were the conditions being reported by the hotline late Tuesday morning.

Travel was also not recommended on Highways 8, 47 and 48 late Tuesday morning.

If you must travel, it’s best to give yourself lots of stopping distance, especially if you have switched over your winter tires to summer ones.

“Slow down and give yourself a little more following space as you are used to driving with winter tires and they have very different traction rates,” said Dallas Work, a senior assistant with Kal Tire Regina.

A snowfall warning was issued for parts of east-central and southeastern Saskatchewan by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on Monday afternoon. Some regions were forecasted to see as much as 20 centimetres of snow.

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“We still do see quite a bit of snowfall for the month of April over the prairies, it’s getting less and less likely as we get further into the spring,” said Danielle Desjardins, a warning preparedness meteorologist with ECCC.

“We were expecting about 10 to 20 centimetres total especially over the higher terrain, closer to the Manitoba border, but it looks like some regions especially locally could seen even upwards of 25-ish centimeters in total with this system.”

The Saskatchewan RCMP advised motorists of winter driving conditions in a news release on Tuesday.

According to RCMP, road conditions have been impacted by winter weather particularly in the Carlyle, Wolseley and Broadview areas on Highway 1.

Police said they’ve responded to multiple collisions in the area – adding that road conditions are continually deteriorating. No injuries have been reported to RCMP as of 11:30 a.m.

On Monday, ECCC said the snow is expected to intensify throughout Tuesday before tapering off on Wednesday morning.

Current watches and warnings can be read here.

See current road conditions here.