The winter that won’t die prompts crashes, snowfall warnings across Prairies

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. – The winter that wouldn’t die continues to plague the Prairies.

Snowfall advisories were issued Friday in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, while in northern Alberta heavy snow and poor road conditions were considered factors in a multi-vehicle crash on Highway 63, the main road to the oilsands town of Fort McMurray.

No one suffered life-threatening injuries in the pileup but RCMP said several people had been taken to hospital.

That, combined with collisions on other roads in the area, prompted RCMP to warn against travelling on the highways in the area.

In Manitoba, Environment Canada was forecasting up to 20 centimetres of snow in the south-central region by Saturday morning and issued a snowfall warning for 32 communities.

The same snowfall warning was in effect for a swath of central Saskatchewan and east-central Alberta.

Meanwhile, temperatures in the north of Manitoba were frigid, with lows of —25 forecast for Saturday for the region from Thompson up to Churchill.