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By Blair Braitenbach
Staff reporter
The calendar might read springtime, but Jack Frost came nipping with a vengeance over the weekend in Okotoks and throughout most of the province.
As of Monday, Okotoks and area received approximately 33 cm of snow since it started falling on Friday, according to Environment Canada. The amount of snow Okotoks received was the second highest in southern Alberta, next to the Consort area which received 35 cm of snow. With temperatures hovering around -10C and windchills reaching below -20C, many people went back into hibernation mode. Those who did venture outside were forced to navigate slippery roads through poor visibility.
According to Okotoks deputy fire chief Jim Smith, the fire department responded to five motor vehicle collisions out of town between Friday and Sunday, with visibility, ice and wind being contributing factors. However, he said most of the incidents were not serious and most drivers respected the road conditions.
“We don’t ever want anyone to crash, but with bad weather we expected to go out,” Smith said. “But there were fewer (collisions) than expected. For the most part people were really good.”
Okotoks RCMP Staff Sgt. Wade Sparks concurred with Smith, saying that with the sudden snowfall there were fewer accidents than what was expected. In town, Sparks said RCMP members responded to a number of vehicle collisions resulting from icy streets, however, none of them were very serious.
“We weren’t overwhelmed with accidents,” Sparks said.
“I think for the most part people were driving for the weather conditions.”
The blowing snow and slippery conditions did result in a number of vehicles sliding into ditches on the highway, according to Big Rock Towing Service dispatcher Sharon Hart. She said the towing company received approximately double the volume of calls they normally receive, primarily for hoisting cars out of ditches. She added temperatures did not dip low enough to have to respond to too many dead car batteries.
“It was mostly the recovery from ditches where people had slipped off the road,” Hart said.
From an agricultural perspective, the moisture received should be nothing but positive for this year’s crops, said Doon Pauly, provincial crop specialist at the Agriculture Information Centre. Southern Alberta received only about 43 cm of snow throughout the winter. With the addition of the weekend’s snow, the area has received a total of about 70 cm of snow since the end of March. Pauly noted there are lower water levels in snow and, therefore, the snow shouldn’t result in any excess runoff and should melt into the soil as soon as temperatures return to normal.
“The moisture is probably welcome for most of the province. Soils were quite dry in fall, and we were quite dry coming into this season. There was enough moisture to get going, but this will probably be welcome,” Pauly said, but added the winter-like conditions could possibly negatively affect seed that has already been planted.
“It’s not so much moisture it’s really going to delay operations.”
Todd Gallant, weather anchor for Global Calgary, added that the rate at which the snow melts will be a determining factor in how crops will be affected – the faster the melt the more run-off and the slower the melt the more it will sink into the soil.
“When temperatures slowly creep up, which is pretty much what’s happening in our forecast in the next few days, that’s actually better news,” Gallant said, adding that snow acts as an insulator and can actually aid in the health of plants.
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