Late Afternoon Update – (via radio) Police and emergency services are asking people not to use cell phones in the area unless necessary, as the system is being overloaded, and causing them problems. There are still a lot of drivers stranded on the roads, in and out of Saskatoon. Reports of 20 – 30 vehicles on the highway outside Rosetown, for example.
More U of Sask webcams.
Noon Update - Current Sask highway conditions;
Saskatoon highways are temporarily CLOSED due to zero visibility, blowing and drifting snow North Battleford Area highways are temporarily CLOSED due to zero visibility, blowing and drifting snow. TRAVEL NOT RECOMMENDED In Unity, Kerrobert, and Rosetown areas. #3 Highway East and West of Melfort is CLOSED due to Zero Visibility, Loose Snow, Snow Drifts, Swirling Snow, Drifting Snow, TRAVEL NOT RECCOMENDED throughout the Prince Albert Area Meadow Lake Area Highways are temporarily CLOSED due to zero visibility, blowing and drifting snow.There are also several streets in the Saskatoon closed or blocked by drifting, and motorists around the province reported stranded - including a Greyhound bus full of passengers bound for Edmonton that was forced to spend the night a few km outside North Battleford. More at the link. 2 PM (local time) UPDATE - believe it or not, this thing is getting worse. Saskatoon schools are not allowing children to walk home on their own, and are calling parents to get them. That may be difficult as there are multi-car pileups in various locations around the city. Winds at the moment are a sustained 70km/h. These are photos I took minutes ago on my street, looking west and east. (Click for larger version)
Links to video and photos from listeners at CKOM radio. (link fixed)
Update - two deaths reported at the Onion Lake reserve, when two people left their vehicle after getting stuck on a grid road.
More, to the west of us (where things look postively sunny by comparison) Darcey asks you "take a little time out of your day to thank John Baird. He’s been Environmental Minister for just a short little time now but look at the difference"
Oh, you poor dear…
Here, it’s perhaps five degrees, sunny and not windy. No snow at all on the ground. Still lots of green grass. A lovely day…
Too bad I gotta work!
Pretty nasty out towards my way too in Olds, big winds but luckily no heavy snow. I expect that they will hit you in a day or so.
Certainly there’s a sense of empowerment every time the weather complies with one’s view on the subject of global warming. I understand your use of sarcasm but I don’t believe it’s particularly helpful to discrediting the dubious claims of the eco-alarmists.
It has been extremely frustrating and irritating listening to the “I told you sos” from the alarmists so far this winter in southern Ontario. There’s nothing scientic about this approach and personally, I’d prefer if the good guys could refrain this tactic.
kate, conservatives in this country are concerned about climate change now. didn’t you get memo?
Out here in east central Alberta it is worse – so be prepared Kate – it’s headed your way!!!
Jeff, I don’t speak for anyone but me.
Eastern Alberta [highway 16] has pretty much ground to a halt. Very windy and snowing heavily.Travel almost immpossible. It’s heading SE by looking at the radar.
Snow in Saskatchewan in January proves that Global Warming is a hoax, and the fact that the office tower I work in is still standing proves that the Terror Threat is a hoax (I’ll try to post photographic proof of this “office tower” at my blog when I get a chance, but we all know these things are easily manipulated).
I’ll send a quick note to George and Steve to let them know everything’s a-okay…
~
~
Do you mean sort of like that, Dr. Strangelove?
Anyone out there from Lloydminster way?Am concerned about weather/roads,as my boy is “hauling” out of there,will be on road today,and I haven’t heard from him.Here in Sunny Manitoba(SE),it was quite blustery this a.m.,but clearing nicely now…predicted cold snap for rest of wk tho (-30ish).Back to status quo weatherwise,by sound of things.I must admit,my back didn’t miss shovelling!
Lloydminster will be bad, if the reports out of North Battleford are true. I believe radio reported earlier that HWY 16 has been closed in that section.
Crabgrass – when the global warming “all your weather are belong to us” cultists stop using local weather fluctuations as evidence for “climate change”, then I’ll reconsider whether it’s fair game to report on blizzards in January in Saskatchewan.
It is normal for there to be wind, rain and warm spells in the dead of winter in virtually any part of this country – the only thing “normal” about the Canadian climate is its ability to be unpredictable and extreme.
It is not normal for office towers to come crashing down on a bright September morning.
Well, it’s minus five here in the Okanagan, but going down to minus twenty-one this weekend. It is also cloudy, windy, and just downright miserable.
I moved here expecting warm winters, and little or no snow, this year we’ve had lots of snow, and colder than last year temperatures.
I demand the Harper government do something to rectify this situation!
Thanks for info re Lloyd Kate,I’ll try not to stress too much,and hopefully co.my boy works for will keep the guys off road today.
Kate,see recipe below, this should get you through the day.
Cheers
Hot Toddy recipe
Scale ingredients to servings
1 tbsp honey
3/4 glass tea
2 shots brandy
1 slice lemon
.
Kate, I’m not sure that I would agree that local weather fluctuations constitute the best climate change evidence put forth by the cultists. I would agree that some infer too much from weather anomalies, though.
In any event, do you think that Stephen Harper now believes that climate change is real and that humans are largely responsible for it and must now take some painful steps to address it?
That is the point crabgras. The climate is changing…where is the evidence that it is anthrogenic?
What steps are you taking crabgrass???
PM Stephen Harper says what I think as well…that the science is conflicting and still evolving. If all scientists could agree, then there wouldn’t be a dispute, but they don’t.
I’m in the middle of a blizzard here, and I can remember blizzards and warm winters from way back when. The weather fluctuates. Mother Nature surprises us. That’s why people talk about weather most of the time when you first greet them, because no one knows what’s coming around the corner? We don’t know what’s going to happen weather-wise next week, but somehow people claim to know what’s going to happen in the next 10-20 years….????
Where, oh where is it written that the climate is not allowed to change? Are we now being subjected by the politically correct that we must have mandated designer weather at all costs? And by all means, let us pick on the province that is the envy of the rest and grind its economy into the ground for the sake of our sanctimonious selves. Let us be like the third world and march proudly back in time until we are as stupid and poor as them. Onward unchristian combatants, we march to our demise knowing we have manufactured righteous and unmitigated gall to tell everyone how to live out their end of days.
vf, I think most scientists would point to current carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Myself, I’m not sure.
My question, and I’d love to hear Kate’s view if she’s still looking on… what do you think Stephen Harper believes?
Sammy,
I’m in Lloyd and its not too pretty. Lots of drifting snow. Rural shool buses didn’t run today.
However, in town it’s not too bad. Just have to avoid the drifts on the road. The highways on the other hand aren’t pretty, mostly due to low-visability with the blowing snow.
Wind is supposed to die down this afternoon though, which should help.
That’s an excellent statement by Kate comparing the normalcy of changing climate/unpredictable weather to the Twin Towers being destroyed by jihadists, which is definitely not normal.
Notwithstanding the current administration’s official position on “climate change”, I, too, will speak my own mind on the matter.
To see my explanation as to why I dismiss fears that humanity is responsible for radical climate change at all, I’ll direct y’all to a recent post I did in which I ridicule Stephane Dion as bold-facedly hypocritical on environmental issues and in which I point out that from its very birth, the Earth’s history is one of radical climactic change, not to mention the breaking up and drifting apart of continents and the oceans rising to cover much of the original exposed land of the planet:
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2007/01/dion-blows-hypocritical-hot-air-on.html
This Chicken Little thing is just the latest fad issue for the bored, glazed-eyed masses to jump onto for a little excitement, like a joy ride. Whatever happened to health care? It’s amazing that the leftist state apparatus has managed to transform the perceptions and received opinions of the population from believing in one thing as most important to believing in another instead. All the hype… how can the average, impressionable person possibly resist the urge to submit to this pressure to think as they’re supposed to, rather than for themselves?
I’m all for environmental cleanliness, sustainability and so on, but please notice that hardly anyone at all appears to have any comprehensive idea of how to somehow influence the climate, which is obviously really something that depends on the whim of Mother Nature.
Why don’t we instead be specific about what we can do? Let’s examine everything; be analytical. How can we reduce pollution here and there? How can we reduce consumption?
The Conservatives are taking the right approach. They’re rightly moving to analyze exactly what can and cannot be done and balance it with the need for an expanding economy. They rightly remind everyone that we cannot expect radical environmental improvement in the short run. It’s a monstrous logistical nightmare, so it’s going to take time, effort, intellect, etc if it’s going to work at all.
In short, let’s keep our common sense, please, and not get all Chicken Little…
LOL !!!
saskatchewan, land of the chain smokers.
last time I saw air like that was a bingo hall. that was before casinos popped up like mushrooms and the bingo establishments folded.
the ‘action’ wasnt fast enough to slake the gambling addiction.
Thanks Shabbado,nice to hear from that neck of woods!Your city/prov.has been good to both my boys,just too bad they had to leave Man.to get decent jobs!
I thought May, Layton & Dion had solved this weather problem. Why did they allow this blizzard to happen. And to think liberals and others in the msm are prepared to follow these three, like the Pied Piper, to their doom. Europe has been trying to folloy y2kyoto and they still have weird weather. Weather changes, and anyone that thinks this is humans fault is crazy. In 1953 I went to work is sleeveless dresses until January. In 1960 when my oldest started school, he never went if it was 20 below F. 2 yrs later, if I had followed the same rule, he would never have gone to school for 2 months straight. Then there are the stories of my in-laws, back in the early days of going to town with a horsedrawn sled, and coming home in mud. Considering how many city people never see daylight or are out in the elements, I can understand why they are surprised it snows, blows, melts, and freezes. In our part of the country the above can happen within 6 hours. Think about it. You get in your car, drive to work, park underground, work in an office with windows that don’t open, get in your car and drive back and park in the garage. No wonder you believe all the crack pots re global warmning.
What will Harper do, the same as the libs did for 13 years, lots of talk, no action. I don’t want my money going to China or Russia. Bad enough it goes to the cbc.
I believe that PM Harper believes that the Media has promoted a Hoax onto the citzens of Canada and the MSM is liable big-time.
Case in point; ‘The media keeps reporting that our climate is warming’. Ya, the earth has warmed slightly this last century(maybe 0.6C), after having been cooler (Little Ice Age) than before (Medieval Warm Period). Big deal.
But then, the media blatantly fails to report on the following;
How much of the slight warming is the result of the ‘Urban Heat Island’ effect ?? Cities are much warmer than the surrounding country side(the Earth itself).Many weather stations have been ‘surrounded’ by cities as they grew larger and larger the past century and gave off more and more heat.
Satillite measurements are showing even less than the miniscule 0.3C to 0.6C century increase of mostly ‘city-based’ thermometers. In fact the sats show a small decrease the last two decades.
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/essd06oct97_1.htm
From Environment Canada web site:
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/essd06oct97_1.htm
Dion, as enviro Minister in March 2005 was to “invest” $5.2 Billion in Kyoto under the disguise of “sustainability”.
Has anyone audited the temperature readings on EC thermometers ?? With a budget in the $Billions, do you think EC would like higher temperature numbers to justify Suzuki’s Doomsaying.
Simple, just leave some of the thermos in the ever expanding Heat-Island and skew the data. Who will ever know. IMO.
Well, at least the information highway isn’t shut down and frozen over. I wonder just how many sweaters those Kyoto fans are wearing to keep from freezing to death. We all know they wouldn’t turn on the heat and waste all those valuable energy units now would they. And to think people still wonder why Canada uses more energy than the average country.
BTW: That weather is precisely what I don’t miss about the prairies. Friends & family, yes.
Climate change??……It’s always changing….is human activity the cause?….well I guess that may depend on who’s signing your pay cheque….one thing is certain though….humans are pigs when it comes to polluting our environment and habitat and few seem to give a dam. The world is a filthy mess thanks to us …and we worry about a few snow geese eating the tundra up north
Yeah, but what about ALL those hurricanes this year?? Way more than last year, which was a horrible year…..hey wait, there were very few this year and, huh, never mind……guess that truth is a little too inconvenient….
“In any event, do you think that Stephen Harper now believes that climate change is real and that humans are largely responsible for it and must now take some painful steps to address it?”
Lets see Crabby, winter ends, summer comes and winter comes again. I remember winters in the 60’s being snowed in (worse blizzards than this) for three days. Nobody went anywhere. The weather is not a constant thing. For the last few years, we had no snow out here in east central Alberta until well into January – didn’t hear Jacko or all the other enviro nazi’s talking about how it was the end of the world. Climate changes, temperatures ebb and flow depending on a multitude of things – SUV exhaust being the most minor of them all. By the way, Crabby, I would love to see your Smart Car out on the roads today!
Crabby, right now, outside my window, it looks like the end of the world.
I don’t know if SH believes in climate “change” but I sure hope that your utopia of constant 25 degree, calm, sunny weather comes about because this blowing global warming dust is not my cup of tea!
The climate change industry is a money making scam and unfortunately it has hoodwinked people like you, Crabby into thinking that somehow the human race is the cause. Bullsh*t!!!
snowing pretty good here in grey/bruce, streamers off of lake huron & Georgian bay. Nothing on the ground 2days ago now 12″ or more overnite.
This was badly needed for the Town of Blue Mountains ski resorts 40min east of here as they laid-off 1200 employees the other day.
If I can add a link, I would suggest this thread may be of interest: http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/07/carbon-dioxide-and-temperatures-ice.html.
If I read it correctly, it refutes one of AlGore’s strongest points – That the cause of warmer temperatures is CO2. Instead, it appears that CO2 and other gases increase following periods of higher temperatures and he was dishonest in the way he presented his theory. If, on the other hand, one theorizes that sunspots or other natural occurances are causing higher temperatures (see ice caps on Mars), then the higher CO2 would follow. Therefore, it is unlikely that the small amounts of additional CO2 produced by man would change this causal relationship significantly.
So, as Lorrie Goldstein would likely say, take a pill and get some real research done to see what is the cause of the warming and what, if anything can or should be done. I’m quite comfortable with January temperatures above zero.
bobz, oceans are a huge sink of CO2. as temperatures increase, the oceans release CO2 into the atmosphere… solubility of gases in a liquid is inversely proportional to temperature of the liquid.
CO2 cultists repeat after me: “Correlation is not causation”.
Kate, which picture faced East and which one faced West?
Someone’s editorial [Goldstein?] pointed out that Chretiens atempt to one up the U.S. by settting unreachable targets was compounded by the fact that we are a Northern [ freekin cold country] and that most of the signatories had more temperate climes.
Just talked to my son in Fort St John, BC and grandson in Grand Prairie. My son says he has seen people out in T-shirts. Cars are stalled in the middle of the road, and entrances to stores are blocked. Some drifts up to 15 feet high. If you haven’t got a 4×4 better stay inside. He didn’t see any hybrids out. Sure would like to see on trying to get around today. Grandson not working today, -40, snow and wind. Can anyone find any article by any envirowacko-David S or others from about 1980 where they warned of global cooling and the coming ice age. Would be fun to do a side by side of them.
I wonder if all those wackos are afraid of the boogey man under their bed.
I think Stephen Harper thinks Global Warming is just as real as Dion. Dion talked big and did nothing, that shows what he really thought.
Harper cannot beat the world’s media’s obsesion with Y2Kyoto so why not do a Dion? Worked for the Lieberals.
Mary Y : Reading your post reminded me of things I heard about the wild climate, in the beautiful Cypress Hills, from my forefathers. I was born during a major blizzard – Oct 5, 1950 – my Dad was digging potatoes the day before I was born in his shirtsleeves. He always said that I changed the weather!
I have a diary my grandmother kept from 1897 to 1973 – she noted the weather every day. If anyone doubts ‘climate change’ I could e-mail her notes. It has been changing for thousands of years!! “The only constant is change” Heraclitus, 3 B.C.
The ignoramuses that are special interest ‘experts’ rely on the lack of historical knowledge among the citizens to keep the panic knee jerk reactions to keep the Y2Koyta thingie alive.
Mo tse Strong and his multi millionaire control freak buddies are obviously very heavily invested in the Y2Koyota hoax.
Good on Lorrie Goldstein for his getting MSM involved in the issue of Kyoto.
I recently emailed the TO Star’s Chantal Hebert to engage her in the same issue but so far – nothing that I am aware of.
Could it be she doesn’t care to know the ramifications to the economy if we comply fully as the Libs agreed?
Incidentally we are having a gentle winter day in south-western Ontario, some snow overnight but sun shining right now. 3:50 pm.
I trust the polar bears are finding ice floes to hunt from this season, eh?
Stay safe out west folks!
Here’s a question for all the pro-kyoto people. Where did all that carbon that’s in the ground now as oil come from? Answer – the atmosphere. The earth is big enough to adjust to putting some of it back into the air. No oil well gets it all out, actually most of it remains underground when the well is finished (2/3 I think). I would agree with CS’s post above – the sky is not falling.
I think Harper should concentrate any new “climate change” money into measures that will use the oil and gas resources that we have more efficiently. That will only strengthen our economy, not hurt it. One example would be to fund new infrastructure projects for cities to eliminate stop and go traffic. You could greatly reduce evil CO2 emissions by not having all those cars and trucks idling at stop lights.
AlbertaGirl, you sound a little agitated.
I wish I had a SmartCar – I think they’re hilarious. The size of my family (including dog) and all the crap we insist on hauling everywhere makes it an impossibility. Unless of course I towed, say, a SmartCar filled with all our crap everywhere we went.
If you read my question (you quoted it above), you’ll see that I didn’t say that I believe that humans are responsible for climate change.
I’m wondering what readers here think Stephen Harper’s sudden gravity concerning the climate is all about.
Do you think he believes that we are to blame?
Do you think he believes that climate change is a problem?
Do you think he would be willing to pretend to believe either or both of the above in order to get elected?
Given his newly invigorated attention to this matter and the assignment of John Baird to the portfolio, these are very natural questions to ask, and yet I haven’t seen them addressed. The answer to at least one of them has to be “yes”, don’t you agree?
And finally, if he’s willing to pretend to believe, is that a greater or lesser crime than Stephane Dion saying that he’d drop his French citizenship if it looks like that’s a big deal to Canadians? Not long ago this was offered as proof that he’s only interested in power (not by Kate, btw).
Kate, holy crap, nice pics. Stay inside!
Visiting Vancouver this week and it’s snowing. People here panicking as is usually the case when a light dusting of snow comes down. There were apparently some very strong winds yesterday, but I was inside and had no idea that trees were falling in Stanley park again. Didn’t bring a chainsaw with me so looks like a walk in Stanley park is out this visit.
Vancouver is a place where people have come to expect uniform climates and they tend to conveniently forget what happened a decade ago. When people who have lived here for decades start going on about global warming, they seem to have totally forgotten about the huge snowfall we had here in 1998. I remember it well as it was only the only time in 25 years I was able to cross-country ski in downtown Vancouver. The strong winds are new and I haven’t been able to find out much more about how often they occur on the west coast.
If people want a “designer climate” then they have to make it themselves. The earth, despite Al Gore’s opinions to the contrary, is beyond our current ability to engineer at this time, but space habitats represent an ideal place to create the type of climate one wants. We’ve had the technology to do this for almost 50 years now and if we’re going to spend trillions of dollars on something, at least make it something worthwhile like space transportation and materials research so that we can construct a space elevator to geosynchronous orbit. And soon, damnit, as I’m not getting any younger.
One factor which never seems to come up is the effect of highways in creating heat-island effects. Every year the amount of land paved with asphalt grows larger, and it is all black. I’ve seen roads in the interior of BC get hot enough to start getting soft in spots in the summer and, if one calculates the total paved area of N. America, one is dealing with a huge amount of additional heat absorption that occurs. Maybe the solution to anthropogenic global warming is as simple as painting the roads white. Might make driving a bit more difficult in winter, but then we could always paint them black again in the fall.
Thank you, Kate, for publicizing the Prairie Centre’s event with Laurier Schramm that was hosted this morning at 7:30 a.m. We had 57 registrations and 38 showed up. There was a tractor-trailer jackknifed across the road just north of the Willows which stopped some from coming. Saskatchewan people are amazing.
Crabgrass:
A thousand years ago the Vikings were farming in Greenland. People were growing grapes in England. Ten thousand years ago most of Canada was covered with thick ice.
Not many are disputing that climate change is occurring…it always has. What many of us dispute is the Kyoto fraud, implying that mankind is causing climate change and, even more improbably, has the capability of doing anything about it.
Meanwhile, here in balmy Delta, BC, we have six inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is plumetting.
Gotta love that global warming…
Whoops, forgot to change back from the “they’ve run out of virgins post”….
this just in.
Vancouver Island BLizzard 2006
Day 1 – Vancouver Island Blizzard 2006 – Chilled Vancouver
Islanders faced their first day of winter hell today,
as 6-8 inches of the peculiar white stuff fell, bringing the island
to its knees and causing millions of dollars worth of damage to the marijuana crops. Scientists suspect that the substance is some form of frozen
water particles and experts from Saskatchewan are being flown
in. With temperatures dipping to the almost but not quite near
zero mark,
Islanders were warned to double insulate their lattes before venturing
out.
Ladysmith police recommended that people stay inside except for
emergencies, such as running out of espresso or biscotti to see
them through the Island’s most terrible storm to date. The local
Canadian Tire
reported that they had completely sold out of fur-lined sandals.
Drivers were cautioned to put their convertible tops up, and
several have
been shocked to learn that their SUV’s actually have four wheel drive, although most have no idea how to use it.
Weary drivers faced soggy sushi, and the threat of frozen breast implants. Although Dr. John Brooks, of the Coastal Health Authority in Drayton Valley, reassured everyone that most breast implants were perfectly safe to 25
below, down-filled bras are flying off the shelves at Mountain
Equipment Co-op.
“The government has to do something,” snarled an angry Sam
Kuzio, “I didn’t pay $540,000 for my one bedroom condo in
Victoria so I could sit
around and be treated like someone from Edmonton.”
Gotta say here my people,this is better than the weather network!Solid info,as well as some levity!I have to quit coming here tho..not getting much more accomplished.SDA is my new addiction.
Kate.. this must all be a ruse! I just checked Bourque and the only bad weather is snow and rain in Vancouver and lack of same in the Golden Triangle…
Fortunately, my drive from Calgary to Hague to see the grand-daughter was clear and dry. Right at the moment we have a 4 foot drift built up on the patio door and a 3 footer across the approach… Snowed IN here.. can’t even see the barn from the house anymore….
Actually, CKOM radio is probably doing the best job of following the storm. They’re on full coverage at the moment.
Another update for Saskatoon: 3:45 pm.
I can’t see the trees 30 ft. from the house. (10 minutes E. of S’toon)
Howling wind.
A buddy who works at a large GM dealership says their entire stock of 4×4 vehicles were given out to get their 170 employees and customers home. Closed now, nothing left.
Some city snow-removing equipment is now stuck.
Some intersections now blocked by accidents.
Local radio stations getting cell calls from stranded motorists worrying about running out of gas. Scary thought with a -40 windchill.
I haven’t seen anything like this one since 1974…
Oh, well, at least my tractor still runs well!
Rum is out, fire in the fireplace, blizzard party is on!
Holy Crap Kate – it obviously gathered steam coming across Alberta and has definitely dropped a bomb on you Saskatchewanites. Now that it a BLIZZARD!!! Keep safe – we need you.
Crappy – Perhaps I misunderstood your question as being your beliefs?? Agitated – absolutely, I am agitated over those that somehow believe that anything other than 25 degrees and sunny is somehow evidence of humans destroying the planets.