A winter storm enveloped Edmonton and central Alberta on Monday, combining almost four seasons’ worth of weather in one day.
The storm began in the early afternoon by dumping between two to six millimetres of rain that changed to snow before the supper hour as winds gusted up to 58 km/h to create near white-out conditions.
Temperatures plunged from plus 2 degrees Celsius at 11 a.m. to minus 24 with windchill at 7 p.m.
The rain froze as it landed, icing up walks and roadways throughout the city and capital region, evidenced by dozens of crashes.
Edmonton police said there were 190 reported collisions between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., including six that left people injured.
About 40 vehicles ended up in ditches along 23 Avenue in southwest Edmonton. Police asked drivers to avoid both west and eastbound 23 Avenue between 119 Street and Magrath Road until the blockage was cleared. No one was hurt, police said, but several vehicles sustained “minor damage.”
Crews had the hill sanded before noon.
The city’s supervisor of field operations said road maintenance began Sunday night in anticipation of the freezing rain.
“We called in additional staff to get them into sander trucks and try to get some material out there ahead of the freezing rain,” Andrew Grant told CTV News Edmonton.
The strategy is to target top priority roads first – those with higher speeds and volumes of traffic – as well as known problem areas like the river valley, hills and bridge decks.
“With the temperature that is forecasted here over the next 48 hours, it’s absolutely critical our crews get those areas back down to bare pavement and just reduce the risk of any ice formation on those areas.”
“The freezing rain earlier this morning has made city streets extremely slippery,” Edmonton Police Service spokesperson Scott Pattison said.
“If you have to go out this morning, please drive slow and maintain a healthy space between you and the other vehicles on the road.”