January thaw follows week of snowstorms, frigid temperatures

With this week's balmy temperatures, residents are shedding their heavy jackets and boots for lighter outerwear and are finding it hard to believe that it was only a week ago that the Tantramar area was pummeled with its fourth snowstorm of the Christmas holidays.
Last Wednesday's storm, which dumped another 30 centimetres of snow on the already snow-covered region, also brought with it blustery winds, slippery highways and poor visibility.
Treacherous road conditions - brought on by high winds and heavy snow - lead to the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway along the Tantramar Marsh area near Sackville for several hours in the mid-afternoon, finally re-opening when the wind subsided.
Cpl. Jenny Williamson, team leader of the Sackville RCMP, said during the height of the storm, her officers were called to a pair of accidents on the highway.
"It was en route to the scene (of the accidents) that I decided we had to close it," said Williamson.
The first of the two accidents was located in the eastbound lane where a vehicle went off the road near Sackville. No one was injured, Williamson reported.
RCMP were also called to a second accident in the westbound lane near Aulac, which involved a semi-truck and six vehicles. Fortunately, said Williamson, there were no injuries in this accident either.
"It took us a while to get out there because of the conditions," she said. "The visibility was very low and the roads were extremely icy."
Williamson said the semi did not appear to have any damage but was simply stuck after sliding off the road. It was towed out of the ditch and was able to drive away.
Two cars were off the road, undriveable and had to be towed. Two others were off the road but didn't suffer any damage; they were towed out of the ditch and the vehicle owners were able to drive away. The other two vehicles were still on the road but damaged; one was driveable, the other had to be towed.
RCMP continue to investigate the accident but Williamson said it appears the wind likely pushed the semi-truck off the road and several of the other vehicles followed suit.
"But we were able to get the tow truck out there once we shut the highway down and at least three of the vehicles were just pulled out and were able to drive away."
Williamson said when the wind finally died down around supper time, the plows were able to get back on the highway.
"The problem was that the wind kept blowing the salt off so it wasn't able to take action," she said. "So we had to wait until about 5 o'clock when it finally was able to settle down a bit where the salt could do its job."
Local residents were left digging out Wednesday evening and Thursday morning after the fourth storm in eight days hit the area, leaving a total of over 160 centimetres of snow behind.
"Having four back-to-back storms is pretty unusual for Sackville in my experience," said George Woodburn, the town's director of public works and engineering.
The public works crew started off their week last Monday morning by doing a clean-up of the downtown area in preparation for the New Year's Eve revellers and in anticipation of another storm that day.
"We were a little concerned that, with another storm coming, there wouldn't be a place to keep the snow," said Woodburn.
The New Year's eve storm was followed up by one day of sunny skies and then straight into more blizzard-like conditions on Wednesday (Jan. 2).
Woodburn said his snowplow drivers found clearing roads difficult during the worst part of last week's storm when visibility was very poor.
"We kept having to go back and forth, back and forth . . . for a while we had to concentrate on the main roads and leave the side streets because we'd go out and do the main road and by the time we got back to where we started it needed to be done again."
Fortunately, the wind quieted overnight and the crews were able to clear the snow off the roads.
Woodburn said last Thursday their next priority would be to widen streets, clear sidewalks and haul away the extra snow to get rid of the big banks
He said the cleanup of the snow banks around town, which had piling up as a result of the storms, was anticipated to take place Friday and Saturday.
"We really try and focus on the downtown and promote the downtown from the standpoint of having the snow removed as soon as possible," he said.
The public works director anticipated that, after several days of colder temperatures expected on Friday and Saturday, things would return to normal for his crew this week with milder temperatures and less snowfall.
"I think we're seeing a warming trend; we see temperatures next week in the seven and eight degrees range and no indication at this point in time of any storms brewing."