This morning when I looked out into our back yard (left) it was as if we had slipped backward in time as the snow of winter was back. When I stepped out onto the steps with the snow even with the bottom of the door it was clear that this was not like winter snow.

There was no crunch or squeak to each step as the snow was like a kind of foam that simply absorbed one's weight, a bit spongy and adhesive to the surface of a vehicle. It was so heavy the windshield wipers where unable to clear the stuff away.

It was 8:00 and the temperature was right around freezing but the warmth from the ground and street was turning the bottom layer of the snow to slush. It was immediately obvious that tires reacted to the snow quite as my shoes had and road up on it reducing traction and making it very dangerous. There had been a warning on CBC that travel was not advised in this area. Clearly the road to Melfort would be useable only by heavy vehicles like semi units. The town had run its patrol down main street leaving a wind row down the centre and the Department of

highways had returned the blades to their trucks and were out on the highways attempting to clear the slush and leaving some sand to give some traction.

The adhesive nature of the fresh snow that had been falling all night long meant that it was clinging to every tree limb and vertical surface on the northeast side. As you can see I went out to try to capture the scenery produced by the sticky snow both on the town and on the nearby countryside.

We will have to wait and see as the snow melts if it has an effect on the already full flowing Doghide River. My guess is that this was enough moisture to push it into a flood stage. This much moisture in the summer in the form of rain would do it on its own.

One nice thing about this little snow visit is that school buses did not have to wade through it this morning as the schools are closed this week for spring break/Easter break. I was surprised to notice that the kids were not out taking advantage of the sticky snow, perhaps enough is enough.

The snow was especially difficult to deal with for drainage. The town's steamer unit was working (left) downtown on a clogged storm sewer.

Moments before I snapped this picture I slowed the van to get another shot and a huge amount of snow slid down the windshield and you can see some of it at the bottom of the picture, sitting on the hood.

The thing about a snow storm like this one is that it is easy to cope with as you know in 24 hours most of it will have melted away.