early snows in Edmonton

[tropicana]

THU SEPT 9th 2004

Kids were building snowmen at recess Thursday, but city crews, farmers and emergency workers were busy dealing with the white mess left by an early blanket of wet snow. Edmonton emergency medical services supervisor Rod Homeniuk said paramedics responded to 17 car crashes in the 24-hour period between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Thursday. The 24-hour period before that saw paramedics go out to 11 collisions.


City of St. Albert work crews will spend Friday cleaning up after the snow damaged hundreds of trees and left officials with a price tag of tens of thousands of dollars.

It'll take weeks to clean up the mess, officials said.

Meanwhile, farmers who have been waiting for dry weather to harvest their rain-soaked crops were hit by heavy, wet snow that flattened crops.

Crops won't dry properly if the melting snow freezes overnight, he said.

Just five per cent of crops have been harvested across the Prairies - a far cry from the 40 to 60 per cent normally off the fields by early September. Most fields are so saturated, it'll take up to two weeks of warm, dry weather to support heavy equipment for the once-promising crop.

Areas east of Grande Prairie were hardest hit by the wacky weather, getting between 10 and 15 centimetres of snow, said David Baggaley, a meteorologist for Environment Canada.

There may have been some flurries Friday morning at dawn, but Edmontonians shouldn't see any accumulation, Baggaley said, just light rain. The weekend forecast calls for clouds, with temperatures ranging from 21 C 70F on Saturday to 14 C 58F on Sunday.

Two power outages Thursday morning - one between 90 Avenue and 125 Avenue and 30 Street to 69 Street, the other from 114 Avenue to 121 Avenue and 53 Street and 68 Street - were quickly resolved, said EPCOR spokesman Jay Shukin. Downed lines cut power to rural areas outside the city as well.

-justin-

[gravitylover1]

Bring it on!