'It's just caught people off guard': City of Brandon deals with aftermath of massive snow dump
Rachel Ferstl | CBC News | Posted: March 4, 2024 6:38 PM | Last Updated: March 4
Southwestern Manitoba city hit with 29 cm of snow: Environment Canada
It's a snow day for people in Brandon as they dig themselves out of a massive dump of snow that hit the southwestern Manitoba city on the weekend.
The city got hit with a whopping 29 centimetres of snow, Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told CBC News on Monday.
That's thanks to a low-pressure system from the U.S. that has been making its way northeast through the province since late last week.
The snow dump led Brandon University to cancel classes and close its Brandon campus for the day. Brandon School Division followed suit, shutting down its 24 schools, bus routes and division offices.
"It's just caught people off guard," Justin Oertel, a Brandon resident and weather enthusiast, told CBC News Network Monday morning.
"Brandon has actually, up to this point, has not really had much snow at all, which is very rare," he said. "And the snow that we have had has melted."
Oertel said the snow started piling up quickly mid-afternoon on Sunday. He's had to help push cars that were stuck out of the snow, and even helped tow a car that couldn't get out.
"It was pure white out here in Brandon," he said.
The storm led to some highway closures in western Manitoba, Oertel said.
As of Monday midday, Highway 2 from Glenboro Highway 18 was closed due to blowing snow, according to Manitoba 511. Other highways leading into the city are covered in with packed snow.
The city's mayor, Jeff Fawcett, said city snowplows are working to clear parts of downtown.
"It is just a standard winter storm on a Prairie city," he said on CBC News Network.
While driving down residential streets can be a bit challenging, Fawcett said, the school and university closures will make it easier for crews to clean up the streets.
"If we don't have to put them on the road, then why would we put them on the road today? By tomorrow, we should be good," he said. "We also know how to drive in this weather."
Other southwestern areas of Manitoba saw 20 to 24 centimetres of snowfall, Hasell said. More northern areas of the province, including The Pas and Flin Flon, are currently under snowfall warnings.
Snow 'welcomed' by farmers
Some food services in Brandon have also shut down for the day, said Jay Mahida with Pizza Pizza.
The restaurant is currently open for pickups or walk-ins, but he's waiting to see whether deliveries can be offered as the city clears more streets.
"It's gonna take time," Mahida said. "Our driver's safety is our No.1 priority."
While the snowfall a disaster for some people in Brandon, it's "very welcomed" by farmers in the southwest due to an unseasonably dry winter and lack of snow overall this season, said Jill Verwey, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
"Over the last three years particularly, the southwest has been hit with unseasonably, really a drier crop year," she said.
The organization, which represents farmers in Manitoba, has been monitoring the lack of moisture this year and hopes for a slow melt and seasonal rainfall come spring: "You always hope for that slow melting in the spring so that you can take advantage of some of that moisture definitely sticking around."