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The first snow
FTLComm - Tisdale - Tuesday, October 26, 2010
When one looks back over the past fifteen years there is a good chance that the only occasionally does the first snow arrive earlier then this week in October. In the past twelve years the first snow has come on this day three times. Some years we see late October remain fairly warm with the snow arriving on Halloween or within the next week and it is very rare to see a Remembrance Day without there being snow on the ground.

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It began yesterday with some very light rain that by evening turned to snow which fell all night accompanied by a fairly persistent north wind so that by this morning our yard had from four to six inches covering everything and an ugly drift in front of the front door. The picture at the top of the page is looking out of our driveway unto the street at 5:30 today.

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No matter when the first snow comes it takes some real getting used to for every driver and today’s arrival was able to produce ample opportunities for driver embarrassment. I drive down town and pulled over to the curb to take the picture shown here and had to squirm around a bit to get things moving after stopping.

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The Department of Highways were certainly on top of the situation as I met a plough coming into town from the south on highway 35 and another coming in from the west on highway 3. In both cases there was a clear need for the road cleaning trucks as you can see in the picture taken as I had to pull over into the snow as the plough came toward me.

Out in the country things were a bit worse with the snow piling up on east/west roads and those with tall grass on the edge of the road are done for because the drifting was filling them in. Kevin McIntyre from Carrot River was talking to a his friend Lenny who had been down to Tisdale in the afternoon and reported that north of Tisdale there was a foot of snow on the highway and a “B” train was jack knifed partly blocking traffic.

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But right here in Tisdale the roads were pretty difficult. With the temperature holding around freezing all day main street seem pretty miserable at the four way stop down town.
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On the west side of town the avenue coming from Heritage Rd. is effectively blocked. I made it through but just barely and was surprised to discover that the drifts are like concrete because of their high water content. On the north side of town Northern Steel Rd is completely blocked with three foot banks. The grass and weeds have not been cut along this road and it filled in with snow. When I was up there near 6:00 there was a truck stuck at the east corner where it had gone off the road while attempting to turn around after discovering the road was blocked. Fortunately, I was able to back all the way back without experiencing a similar fate.

Prospects for the next two days look like it is going to stay right around freezing but we are not likely to see more precipitation and it should be sunning toward the weekend.


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