Residents of several parts of central and northern Alberta woke up to heavy, blowing snow Thursday morning – after a number of severe weather warnings were issued.
During the Thursday morning commute, Edmontonians were dealing with high winds and blowing snow.
Edmonton police said they received reports of a total 25 collisions between 6 and 9:45 a.m. – 20 property damage, four hit and runs, and one injury collision.
By 3 p.m., EPS said the number of collisions officers were called to had jumped to 72 - with 63 collisions resulting in property damage, three injury collisions and six hit and runs.
Commuters in the Capital Region faced a number of delays throughout the morning.
Outside of the city, drivers were also dealing with poor road conditions.
Central Alberta RCMP advised drivers avoid Highway 2, as they said officers were being called to a number of serious collisions in the Red Deer area.
In one case, a highway patrol officer was checking on vehicle occupants at the scene of a crash, when the officer was struck by an out-of-control semi-truck - the officer had to be taken to hospital.
In two cases, both on Highway 16, Alberta Emergency Alert sent out information alerts within minutes of each other regarding closures on the highway due to collisions.
At 10:41 a.m., an alert was released over the closure of westbound traffic on Highway 16 at Range Road 145, 25 kilometres east of Edson, due to a collision in that area - that section of highway was reopened, officials said, in an alert released at 11:50 a.m.
Then, six minutes later, a second alert came out, this time regarding a closure on Highway 16 at Range Road 181A about 5 kilometres west of Edson, due to another crash in the eastbound lanes. That roadway was reopened shortly after noon.
Officials were urging drivers to avoid travel, as blowing snow and ice buildup was causing hazardous driving conditions on those roadways.
City of Edmonton officials are expected to update the state of city roads at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Here's a ROUGH look at total snow so far in Central AB. ~5cm in #yegwx a few pockets of ~10cm S&SE of Drayton Valley pic.twitter.com/Ii6Wztz4Dj
— Jesse Beyer (@jessebeyerCTV) November 27, 2014
With files from Veronica Jubinville
