Mild temperatures and freezing rain are creating some problems on Saskatoon roads.
The Highway Hotline was not recommending travel for all major highways surrounding Saskatoon up until 2 p.m. Thursday. Travel wasn’t recommended in the Outlook-Lucky Lake area later in the afternoon, but that was removed around 4:30 p.m.
“We’ve got an Alberta clipper moving through the province through the day,” Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang said of the immediate forecast.
“That may make for some sketchy driving conditions in the afternoon.”
In the morning, traffic was backed up for roughly an hour after a pickup truck towing a trailer lost control on Circle Drive near the College Drive overpass.
There was a severel-car pileup reported on a separate stretch of Circle Drive near Stonebridge at roughly 1:30 p.m.
In total, Saskatoon police responded to seven collisions in the city between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. No injuries were reported in any of them.
Environment Canada issued snowfall and extreme cold alerts in various parts of northern Saskatchewan on Thursday morning, but Saskatoon was excluded.
Freezing rain, which arrived in Saskatoon around noon, is expected intermittently Thursday evening as are strong winds gusting up to 60 kilometres per hour.
Lang also mentioned one to two centimetres of snow could fall in central parts of Saskatchewan, including Saskatoon.
“If there’s anything on the roads to start with, that ice from the freezing rain may really make the driving conditions in the city and out of the city quite treacherous,” she said.
With the weather changing plenty over the next week between freezing rain, extreme cold and above-zero temperatures, Lang advised people to keep a close eye on forecasts leading up to Christmas.
“We’ve got a real rollercoaster ahead of us for the next week or so,” she said.