Got Snow? Summer Ends As Winter Wonderland In Parts Of Canada

Snow in Canada on the last dau of
summer. Photo via Twitter @adicsask  

By this time of year, snow enthusiasts here in Vermont are looking desperately for the first hints of mountain snow, even though ski areas won't open until October at the extreme earliest. Most of them open in November.

There's not much like that yet to whet people's snow appetite here in Vermont. There was some rime ice atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire Saturday, and I thought I spotted a bit of white at the tippy top of Whiteface Mountain, New York yesterday, but that's about it.

The snow will get here soon enough. If you're really that desperate for snow, you should have headed to Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada on Friday, the last full day of summer.

It was a summertime winter wonderland up in that neck of the woods. Most of us shudder at that idea, but for those of you out there who are into this kind of thing, knock yourself out.

Up to six inches of snow fell on parts of Saskatchewan on Friday. About an inch fell on the  Saskatoon,  the largest city in the province, CBC reported.

The snow spread into western Manitoba, causing quite a few power outages there, says the CBC.

The snow was earlier than usual in that neck of the woods, but not unprecedented. But it did have people groaning about their short summers made shorter by this end of summer snow.

The cold was depressing for people up there, too. Normally, high temperatures there are in the low 60s - not warm, but OK. But afternoon readings only got into the 30s. Temperatures will warm up a bit over the next few days.

The snow has been more than depressing for farmers in northwestern Saskatchewan. It could ruin them, The Weather Network says. Farmers are way behind in harvesting, and for awhile anyway, those crops were under snow.

Rain, cold temperatures, thick smoke from wildfires further to the west and now snow have made things a nightmare for those trying to harvest crops. So far, only 17 percent of crops in northwestern Saskatchewan have been harvested, reports The Weather Network. 

Environment Canada is forecasting continued cold weather, but thankfully drier conditions, over the next week.

Back here in Vermont, there's no snow in the forecast yet. It can snow in the mountains this time of year, but at least for the next week or more, nada.

Keep those skis and snowboards in the closet for now. It probably wouldn't hurt to start shopping for season passes, though, unless you've done so already.