Ready for another Alberta clipper?

Another Alberta clipper is rolling into Westman early this morning and is expected to bring eight to 10 centimetres of snow, Environment and Climate Change Canada said Thursday.

The storm should exit the province by the evening, ECCC meteorologist Terri Lang said.

“This one doesn’t have as much energy to it, plus we’re kind of on the colder side of it, so we’re not going to see that freezing rain and ice pellets that we saw before the snow yesterday, which really made the roads messy,” she said.

An Alberta clipper that came through the region on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, prompting an orange blizzard warning, led to multiple highway closures due to poor visibility.

Portions of the Trans-Canada Highway from Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan border remained closed until Thursday afternoon.

The Brandon Municipal Airport recorded about four centimetres of snowfall on Thursday, but Lang said it’s difficult to know how much other areas in Westman received because the blowing snow formed many drifts.

Dauphin recorded 11 centimetres of snowfall, while Boissevain had nine centimetres and Virden had 10 centimetres, Lang said.

The storm was “particularly strong,” with lots of moisture as it tracked toward the Great Lakes in Ontario, she said. Blizzard conditions caused power outages across southern Manitoba, affecting several thousand customers, Manitoba Hydro said.

Today’s system will see temperatures rise throughout the day, with a forecasted high of -15 C and wind chill of -30 C, but as the winds snap around more to the northwest, temperatures are expected to fall to -21 C by the afternoon.

“We might see some lingering flurries in the afternoon as the cold front comes through, but it’s mostly coming ahead of the system,” Lang said.

The Westman area can expect to see wind gusts of between 60 to 70 kilometres per hour, which should taper down to 50 km/h from the evening through Saturday morning.

Freezing rain is not anticipated because the warm air associated with it is moving south across the U.S. border.

The City of Brandon will start snow-clearing operations on priority streets, including 34th Street, 26th Street and Rosser, Princess and Park avenues, around noon.

“If the snowfall meets the requirement for a citywide event over the next 24 hours, (Friday’s) update will include a revised schedule,” a spokesperson for the city said in a statement on Thursday.

City crews finished clearing the southwest neighbourhoods on Thursday, which marks the final residential zone that needed to be cleared after last week’s snowfall. The schedule for returning to residential streets that could not be cleared because of parked vehicles will be determined based on how much snow falls today.

Once today’s system moves through the province, the Westman area will see colder temperatures before a third Alberta clipper is expected to sweep through the area on Monday, bringing “a little bit of snow,” Lang said.

“It doesn’t look outrageous, right now, but just something to keep an eye on,” she said.

Lang encourages people to be careful while travelling and to check Manitoba highway conditions and the weather forecast before leaving.

People should make sure they have winter tires, an emergency kit in the vehicle, a fully charged cellphone and a full tank of gas.

“When the conditions get hairy, if you’re able to postpone, wait till things kind of settle down a bit, you know. If you can, consider doing that,” Lang said.

As of Thursday afternoon, 14 multi-vehicle collisions were reported in southern Manitoba, the Manitoba RCMP said. A spokesperson told the Sun none of the people involved had serious injuries and none of the collisions happened in the Westman area.

Manitoba RCMP said it received 20 reports of vehicles that had entered the ditch between Wednesday at 6 p.m. until 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. The spokesperson estimates the actual number of vehicles that entered the ditch is much higher, as not everyone calls emergency services if they veered off the road.

From midnight to Thursday afternoon, there were no reports of vehicles in the ditch in the Westman area, the spokesperson said.

Manitoba RCMP said provincial roads are being assessed on an hourly basis.

The Brandon School Division closed Alexander, O’Kelly and Spring Valley schools on Thursday, and cancelled all buses operating outside the City of Brandon. The school division monitors road and weather conditions closely and decisions about upcoming school closures are made by 6:30 a.m. during extreme weather warnings.

Schools in many areas of Manitoba were closed Thursday. All school divisions in Winnipeg opted to cancel classes for the day, as did the University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba and RRC Polytechnic.

Winnipeg city hall cancelled garbage and recycling collection.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said it was sharply reducing home care services.

“This means most home care clients will not be seen today, unless they are considered high risk,” the agency said in a press release.

Main Street Project, a non-profit that serves the city’s most vulnerable, said outreach vans were on the road doing checks on people living in encampments and bus shelters, and offering transportation to safe places.

Cindy Titus, interim director of development at the shelter, said extreme weather days means it’s all hands on deck.

“It’s a busy place. Lots of people coming in for support, needing warm clothing, mittens, winter clothing and stuff like that.”

As the system moved east, winter storm warnings were also issued across north-central Ontario and into Quebec, with up to 30 centimetres of snow forecast.

On Wednesday, the weather system kept police busy in Alberta, dealing with dozens of collisions due to very icy conditions.

One major route in Alberta saw police respond to a widespread pileup and delay involving 80 to 100 cars, closing the Queen Elizabeth II Highway between Calgary and Airdrie.

Saskatchewan RCMP responded to 82 reports of vehicle collisions — a number that did not include vehicles stuck in ditches. A crash involving three semi-trailer trucks left one driver dead and others injured.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press