City crews, Lethbridge drivers handled first major snowfall well, says official

By Lethbridge Herald on December 3, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

After dealing with the first significant snow event over the weekend, the City of Lethbridge has shared an update on how the first snow route activation went. 

Juliane Ruck, transportation operations manager said Tuesday that the recent snow event brought 17.5 centimeters in a 24-hour spam over the weekend, which was quite significant for their snow event. 

“We mobilized all our plows, moved into 24-hour shift, activated the snow routes and the parking ban, and we also did perform snow removal downtown. All the windrows that we created over the weekend have been removed and it’s nice and clean,” said Ruck. 

She said in her opinion everything worked out well, and even though there were still some vehicles that were not removed, compliance has been higher than in previoous years. 

“When we activated the snow roads over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, we had parking officers out there and they issued just over 440 tickets,” said Ruck. 

She said in the areas where those vehicles were not removed from the snow route, plowing was not as successful, as they can get as close to the curb as when there are no cars on the plow’s way. 

When asked about why snow plow trucks sometimes are seen driving around with their plows lifted, Ruck explained there are a few reasons for that. 

“Firstly, out of the over 500 kilometers of road network, we only plow 200. That’s priority one, two and three. And once the snow routes are deactivated, we can’t plow anymore because vehicles are parked on the street,” said Ruck. 

She said that another thing people need to keep in mind is that the snow plows have sanders in the back and they may be driving to get re-loaded. 

“Also, when we plow, ouar goal is not to get bare pavement right away. We’re moving the loose snow to the side and when it’s cooler, as it was over the weekend, the snow gets packed down and it’s not that easy to move,” said Ruck. 

She said residents can check what roads are part of the plow network and through their plow tracker on the city’s website. 

“Over the next week we will be out sanding and applying salt to intersections, hills and curves as they get icy in this weather when it is around zero degrees in the morning,” said Ruck. 

She reminded residents that the city follows a priority road system to plow and they only have so many resources. 

“We first focus on the 120 kilometres of priority one roads, then later on when we have more capacity and have dealt with those, we move to priority two and three,” said Ruck. “And if snow accumulation warrants, then we activate the snow routes.”