The cleanup is underway from the winter storm that hit southeast Saskatchewan on the weekend. While Weyburn itself escaped most of the precipitation, high winds were felt and some rain came down. Communities just outside Weyburn, though, weren’t so lucky. 

SaskPower reported outages covering areas including Halbrite, Lake Alma, Minton, Fillmore, Stoughton, and more, as the storm brought down power lines throughout the region. The damage, at its peak, was reported by the Crown power company to have knocked out power to roughly 24,000 people. It is reported there were still 12,000 people without power as of Monday morning. 

In addition to the loss of power, there has also been a loss of phone services through SaskTel. It is reported the outages for SaskTel services were caused due in part to the power outages. As battery back-ups failed in some areas, services such as internet, wireless service and landline service became unavailable. 

As of late Sunday, it was reported the communities of Carlyle, Kisbey, Kenosee Lake, Manor and Redvers were still without SaskTel services. It was also noted that not all services may be restored until commercial power is available. 

Environment and Climate Change Canada was unable to provide any exact measurements of snowfall, due partly to the outages that were being reported. It was noted by meteorologist Chris Stammers, though, that it was a fairly substantial amount of precipitation. 

“It was certainly worse on the Manitoba side, but definitely a good dump of snow near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border,” Stammers clarified in terms of where the most snow was seen. “Unfortunately, no actual amounts yet.” 

After the second winter storm in April in the span of 10 days, it wouldn’t be unexpected for residents of the southeast corner of Saskatchewan to be weary of winter, and precipitation. But, things may not be over quite yet. Environment Canada is forecasting rain for the region by next weekend. This time, however, it looks like it will stay as rain.  

You can keep up to date with the latest forecasts on the Discover Weyburn Weather page.