A spokesperson for the RM of Hanover says by late Thursday afternoon, their plows should be done with snow-clearing efforts in each town in the municipality. 

Wes Fehr is Manager of Public Works and Operations. He says an average of 15 centimetres or six inches of snow has fallen throughout Hanover. Fehr says their crews have been out since 6:30 am.

"We started with running some priority routes as we lined up contractors and stuff within our communities," adds Fehr.

Fehr explains that they have identified priority routes within Hanover. He notes early in the day they try to ensure that every household in the municipality is within two miles of a road that is plowed. From there, operators will move into the towns, weather permitting, and if the snowfall has slowed down enough. 

Fehr says the expectation was for snowplows to hit the towns at around 9 am on Thursday and then to have most of the towns wrapped by mid to late afternoon.

Environment Canada is calling for the strong northwest wind to persist throughout the day and Fehr says this will cause extra work for his crews. He says the wind blowing around the fresh snow will force snowplows to hit the same country road multiple times over the next couple of days.

"For sure," he says. "We know some of the priority routes that we've done early this morning will be needing to be cleaned up again, either at the end of the day or tomorrow as well."

Fehr explains that they try to get their equipment into more sheltered areas. This allows them to make better progress, rather than hitting the open areas. 

According to Fehr, Hanover has motor graders in four of its five main communities. He notes they have a contracted grader in Grunthal who looks after that town in its entirety. The municipality also hires contractors with loaders to cleanup behind the graders in the rest of the communities. 

Fehr says they also have crews dropping sand on streets after graders have been through. 

Meanwhile, Fehr asks residents not to push snow from their driveways across roadways. He notes when this snow freezes to the road it can damage plowing equipment and can be a driving hazard for any vehicle that hits the frozen mound of snow. 

And his advice to motorists is simple Thursday morning.

"If you don't have to travel on the roads today, probably best not," he says.