Snow hit much of the southern prairies on Tuesday, October 8 and covered Alberta’s southern foothills. The storm stretched into Saskatchewan then progressed into Manitoba on Wednesday. More snow had been expected later in the week for the southern prairies from Alberta to Manitoba. A powerful cold front was blamed for the unseasonal winter storm, which pushed its way into Manitoba from Saskatchewan, bringing unwanted gifts of rain, snow and as well as a drop in temperatures on Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, a cold front had arrived in Saskatchewan from Alberta on Tuesday, October 8 as predicted, but the previously forecasted showers in Saskatoon had changed to snow in the latter part of afternoon along with freezing temperatures.
The snow settled in the Assiniboia area on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. as the storm drove southwards, empowered by northerly winds measured at 20 kilometres an hour. The humidity index on Tuesday night in the Assiniboia region was rated at 93 per cent in the evening then slumped to 59 per cent by Wednesday afternoon.
Over the weekend of October 12-13, the unseasonal snow began to melt away as the sun reappeared. However, cooler overnight lows still characterized the weekend weather, with chilling overnight temperatures ranging from -10 C to - 6 C. Forecasters promised the weather would improve by the next weekend, with warmer daytime averages ranging from 11-7 C, although showers and cooler temperatures had been predicted for Sunday, October 20.
