The aftermath of snow plowing on 20 Street South in Lethbridge. (Photo: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

First snow route activation of the season a success, says City of Lethbridge

Dec 2, 2025 | 11:14 AM

An official with the City of Lethbridge is thanking the public for their cooperation during and after last week’s snowfall.

Around 17.5 cm of snow fell last week, prompting the City to declare snow routes on Friday, Nov. 28.

This meant a temporary ban on on-street parking along designated “snow route” streets, allowing plows to clear snow more effectively without worrying about hitting parked vehicles.

READ MORE: On-street parking can resume as City of Lethbridge lifts snow routes

Overall, transportation operations manager Juliane Ruck says residents were good about moving their vehicles in a timely manner.

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Some cars, however, remained on the roads, meaning that they not only had snow shoveled against them, but some drivers received tickets. For the first snow route activation of the year, she explains that most drivers only got warnings.

“We issued just over 440 tickets,” says Ruck. “We found that compliance was better [than during the first major snowfall last winter] with people moving their cars away from the snow routes. That actually helps us a lot.”

She adds, “It’s really important that residents move their cars away. We try to keep the parking ban as short as we can, but you can see on this road [20 Street South] here how impactful it is if the cars are moved away, and we can really tuck the snow in tight next to the road.”

Over the next week, Ruck says crews will be sanding streets to ensure vehicles can have proper traction.

City of Lethbridge snow plows operate on a priority basis.

Higher-use roads, such as Whoop-Up Drive, University Drive, Scenic Drive, Mayor Magrath Drive, 43 Street North, and others, get cleared first.

Approximately 200 of the 550+ kilometres of roadways in the city are considered Priority 1, 2, or 3.

Once those are done, the snow plows move on to the streets that are designated snow routes.

Ruck says snow clearing is a big job, and so is informing the public of their work.

Staff hand-delivered postcards to around 6,000 homes along snow routes in the fall, advising them that their streets would be impacted by snow route declarations.

The public can stay informed by downloading the Lethbridge Loop mobile app, following the City of Lethbridge on social media, signing up for the City’s news alerts, and tuning in to local news media.

The City also has a snowplow tracker page on its website. It had a colour-coded map of all streets in the community, showing their snow-clearing priority status.

READ MORE: ‘Very cold winter’ forecast for Alberta

A map of snow clearing priorities in Lethbridge. (Image: City of Lethbridge)v