Hat Digs Out — updated

By Mo Cranker on November 9, 2020.

Medicine Hat News

Hatters are digging out from heavy snow and high drifts that socked in the city during weekend snowstorms.

By noon, city officials announced that garbage collection would be suspended for the week, the resumption of transit service was slower than expected, and road crews were swamped attempting to clear roads after two feet of snow landed over the weekend.

Schools were closed, roads were packed and city crews and police warned against unnecessary travel.

Record snowfall in Medicine Hat was only part of a massive winter storm that blanketed Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

City officials stated transit service in the city would start about four hours late, at 9:30 a.m., but updates near noon said the resumption was still underway.

Road crews continued working to clear main roads. Graders, sanders and other equipment concentrate on high priority routes first — school zones, main arteries and hills — before moving on.
On Sunday, the regional Prairie Rose School Division cancelled school buses on Monday, as did Medicine Hat Public School Division. Public Schools were also fully closed on Monday, with that call going out to parents in the morning.

In the region, highways remained covered nearest Medicine Hat on Monday morning, with Highway 41 and the TransCanada to Suffield showing covered or partly covered conditions.

RCMP warned against highway travel, and in Saskatchewan, the TransCanada Highway remained closed between the Alberta boundary and Gull Lake early on Monday morning.

The storm itself saw rain turn into snow Saturday, then heavier precipitation was whipped by wind gusts of up to 70 kilometres per hour on Sunday.
A new record for snowfall at this time of year was set, both Saturday and Sunday with the combined snow equivalent of about one-inch of water value.

Drifts of three feet rose up against houses and lane ways.

City utility officials said that garbage collection will resume on the existing daily zone schedule on Monday, Nov. 16, and that green-bin (yard waste) collection will be extended, but end on Nov. 20.

Intermittent snow was forecast for Monday before flurries on Tuesday and Wednesday. A high of -6 on Monday was expected to be followed by highs of zero and -7 before warmer temperatures later in the week.

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