Following weeks of extreme cold, warmer temperatures are welcomed by many in Southern Saskatchewan, but they do pose some challenges of their own.
Flooding is big a concern for many property owners this time of year. Plumbing companies in Regina are beginning to see the uptick in calls for service which typically come along with Saskatchewan spring.
“The quick melt is the number one issue. The problem we have is, people have a lot of snow around their homes. You’ve got to get your snow away from your foundation because that snow is going to turn into water. And water wants to go down, follow gravity and it’s going to go into your home,” Mike Payne, the sales & marketing manager at Restorex said.
So you can move it away from your homes, and the melt will happen and it’ll flow naturally the way it’s supposed to in the city there with their infrastructure."
Those who spoke with CTV shared that they see many similar issues this time of year.
“We’ve got a lot of calls for sump pumps not working this time. So flooding basements a lot of times it’s just basic things like making sure you some pumps got power. Is it plugged in? Is the breaker tripped? has the, has the discharged pipe got disconnected or is it plugged up with ice? Those kind of little simple things,” Chris Jennings, project manager at Regina Plumbing & Heating said.
These back and forth temperatures are inconvenient, but not uncommon for this time of year.
“We do see these swings, pretty typically every winter or spring, but it can certainly have a bit more impact once we go from below freezing to above freezing, and when we go back and forth between the two,” Justin Shelley, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada said.
Heavy snowfall and heavy flooding often go hand in hand when temperature swings are as drastic as the ones taking place in southern Saskatchewan.
“Snowmelt is a primary contributor to spring runoff. And we can see that a drastic warm up can cause snow to melt faster than the ground can absorb it, leading to an increase risk of that flooding,” Shelley said.
There are some steps property owners can take when it comes to preventing flooding such as clearing snow away from the foundation of buildings, and ensuring that drainage pipes are also away from the foundation.
“You’re kind of stuck with whatever you did last spring. So this spring, make sure your yard’s graded correctly, make sure you’ve got a functioning sump pump,” Jennings said.
Payne added that he is seeing more attics with moisture issues thanks to the swinging temperatures.
“The condensation is melting, causing water in your attic hitting your ceiling ... My suggestion is go up there and peek up in your attic and see what you’ve got going on. And if there’s a large amount of frost up there, be prepared for some moisture issues,” Payne said.
As far as the City of Regina is concerned, they say that they’ve been preparing for this since the summer time.
“We do proactively get out and make sure that the water is going where it needs to, which is our storm channels. And the city has been actively over the summer, going into our storm drains and cleaning them out, and that provides additional capacity,” Helene Henning-Hill, manager of sewer & drainage operations for the City of Regina, said.
