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Spring is decidedly not in the air throughout Alberta, with a winter storm bringing high winds and heavy snow that left some highway motorists stranded for more than 15 hours.
“I took all the clothes of [my] suitcase and kind of made a makeshift little blanket nest to keep warm,” said Lance Kane, who has been stuck on Highway 63 south of Fort McMurray for over 15 hours.
“You kind of lie down, but you also don’t want to fall asleep in case it gets moving and you [become] the guy then holding it up.”
The snow started falling on Thursday. On Friday morning, Environment Canada issued a warning for snowfall totalling 30 to 50 centimetres south of Fort McMurray in the Wood Buffalo and Lac La Biche area.
Parts of Highway 63, the main road leading to Fort McMurray about 430 kilometres north of Edmonton, was closed in both directions on Friday, as icy road conditions and poor visibility lead to multiple crashes. Affected stretches included both directions from Marianna Lake to Fort McMurray, as well as northbound from Wandering River.
Travel is not recommended by RCMP in several parts of the province.
Kane left for Fort McMurray from Edmonton around 3 p.m. Thursday and was stopped in traffic about 100 kilometres south of Fort McMurray just before 7:30 p.m. He hasn’t moved “an inch” since then, he told CBC on Friday morning.
“I don’t see movement. A plow drove by … seems like there’s 20 cars still ahead of me.”
Police have been escorting multiple tow trucks along the highway to reach stranded vehicles.
“You start to get cold and then you start questioning turning the truck on again, then burn more gas to get warm,” Kane told CBC News.
Two semi-trucks collided on Highway 881 just north of Heart Lake, according to Lac La Biche RCMP. “Their loads became compromised and much debris is blocking Highway 881 in both directions,” RCMP said in a statement.
An additional two to five centimetres will fall over highways and communities south of Fort McMurray before snow tapers off in the afternoon.
The winter storm isn’t just affecting northeastern Alberta.
Powerful wind gusts up to 90 km/h have created challenging travel conditions in a number of central Alberta communities, including Olds and Sundre, and down into Calgary. Other parts of the province are seeing winds between 30 and 50 km/h.
Environment Canada said winds will gradually begin to weaken today and overnight.
In Edmonton, residents who had to rescue patio furniture skittering away in howling winds Thursday night woke up to a blanket of snow, with more flakes landing in horizontal sheets as the day wore on.
In Calgary, high winds caused the cancellation of a parade planned for the city’s comic expo.
The Parade of Wonders was supposed to move through the city’s downtown in the morning but was called off. Organizers said an indoor “Party of Wonders” would run instead.
“This decision was not made lightly, but made with the safety of participants as first priority, and in accordance with recommendations from trusted production partners,” Expo organizers said in a statement.
Parts of northern Saskatchewan through to northern Manitoba were also walloped by snow and wind. In Saskatchewan, some areas in the northeast were hit with anywhere between 18 to 25 centimetres and more was expected into the weekend.
Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the snow was welcome.
“Heavy snowfall in the boreal forest will help us moving forward in a better way [as we enter] forest fire season,” he said.
