Blizzard will continue to pound southeast Sask. for next 24 hours

While many people in southeastern Saskatchewan woke up to a relatively mild morning Wednesday, those conditions didn't last for long.

And the blizzard conditions are now expected to last through Thursday.

Much of the area, including Estevan, Weyburn, Moosomin, Grenfell,Carlyle and Beinfait, remained under a blizzard warning as ofWednesday evening.

Those areas are expected to receive anywhere from 20 to 50 centimetres of snow over the next several days, along with wind gusts of up to 70 km/h, according to Environment Canada.

As of 6 p.m. CST, several southeastern Saskatchewan highways were closed. That includes the Trans-Canada Highway, which was closed from the Manitoba border to Whitewood.

"It's a full-fledged blizzard in the southeast corner of the province and it will continue for at least next 18 to 24 hours," Brad Vrolijk, lead forecaster with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said Wednesday evening.

"By Thursday evening, the system will move off to the east," he said, but the southeast corner of the province will wake up to blizzard conditions Thursday morning.

"The worst of the conditions will definitely be sometime tomorrow evening but it will still continue to snow lightly into Friday morning."

Estevan and regions east toward the Manitoba border were the hardest hit as of Wednesday evening, with theblizzard resulting in visibility less than 40 metres that "did not relent through the entire day,"Vrolijk said.

A powerful low pressure systeminNorth Dakota spread snow and high winds in the affected regions, he said, but the system will gradually stall out as it spreadsmore snow in the southeast corner.

"Conditions will be worsening as you approach the Manitoba border with the system," Vrolijk said.

Though it has been difficult to get accurate snowfall amounts, it is likely that theEstevan region hadbetween 20 and 35 centimetres by Wednesday evening, he said.

Estevan saw high gusting winds of 83 kilometres per hour, he said.

The Regina toYorktoncorridor is expected to see more than10 centimetres over the next 24 hours, but snowfallwill drop off west and northwest of that, Vroljik said. Saskatoon can expect two to five centimetres.

The heaviest snowfall will continuethrough Wednesday night and Thursdayin theEstevan, Carlyle and Moosominareas, said Vrolijk.

The southeastern corner is expected to get another 10 to 20 centimetres in the next 24 hours, he said.

"If you are heading towardsoutheastern Saskatchewan, especially if you're planning on travelling into Manitoba, please check the highway conditions and carry a winter survival kit."

Travel comes to halt

Tony Leppa, a trucker with Paul's Hauling, was headed eastbound to Brandonbefore the storm hit.

He was stopped Wednesday inMoosomin, 20 kilometres west of the provincial boundary between Saskatchewan and Manitoba, planning to continue once the storm clears.

"I'm going to be parked hereforagood day. With highways all closed, you can't go any further," he said.

Leppa said he encountered "blowing snow and reduced visibility" on the highways.

Many other truckers were also seen pulling up to the Co-Op gas bar in Moosomin, Wednesday morning.

A couple stuck in Moosomin is trying to find their way home to Winnipeg. Mike Speer and his partner had attended a concert in Regina.

"We were hoping to get home. We just going to go as far as we can," Speer said. "We are hoping to get to Brandon."

Spear said their plan is to keep going ahead until they find barricadedroads they "can't get past."

"If we can't get to Virden, we will just turn around and come back and stay in Moosomin in a hotel. That's the plan," he said.

Senior care

Meanwhile, in the town of Moosomin, Sask., just a few kilometres west of the Manitoba border, residents were doing their best to get ready for the storm.

Bernadette Nosterud, the property manager of Pipestone Villas, an independent living seniors complex, said she was advising her residents to stay close to home.

"We try and keep the walkways cleared here as best we can, but downtown, sometimes, it's a little bit trickier," she said.

"They're well taken care of."

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Nosterud said she was grateful this storm was taking place during warmer weather, and not at 40 C. She said the complex has access to a generator supplied by the town in the event of a large power failure.

"We're hoping that it doesn't get to that point," she said.

"So I told everyone, get your blankets, woolly socks and sweaters out just in case."

Nosterud has lived in the Moosomin area for more than 40 yearsand said it's common for the region to get a severe storm at least once per winter.

Calving issues

Cattle ranchers in the area are keeping an especially close watch on weather conditions.

Many ranchers have either gone through calving for the year, or are going through it right now.

"A lot of them won't be getting much sleep through this storm," said Chad Ross, a rancher with cattle around Estevan,told CBC Radio's The Morning Edition.

"They'll be checking their animals, probably hourly. And any calves that are born in this storm, they'll be taken in, dried off and then getting something to eat."

Ross said his calving doesn't start until May this year, but that doesn't mean he hasn't spent the last few days getting prepared for the storm.

He said all of his cattle have been fed and have enough shelter to protect them from the wind.

"The wind is what is really dangerous for them, more so even than the snow," said Ross.

"We gathered a lot of our feeder cattle into the feedlot yesterday and and got them into pens where they could be behind shelter."

The storm is expected to begin to start tapering off tonight, but some snow and blowing snow is still expected on Thursday.