Wet, heavy snow causes chaos on Calgary roads

After weeks of unusually warm and dry weather, residents of Calgary woke to a thick blanket of snow Monday morning that sent many vehicles sliding into the ditch and crashing into each other.

“It was a return to winter driving conditions,” said Global Calgary traffic reporter Leslie Horton.  “Traffic was moving very slowly — vehicles were sliding off the road and having trouble getting up hills.”

“Plan to spend a little extra time in traffic in these conditions, drive for the slippery roads and make sure to wipe the the snow from your vehicle so it doesn’t blow off onto the vehicle behind you,” added Horton.

Calgary police report there were at least 16 non-injury crashes between midnight and 8:00 a.m., three non-injury crashes and one hit-and-run non-injury crash.

Drivers were warned of the impending snow late Sunday night when Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for the city of Calgary and surrounding area.

“The area the snowfall warning, which does include the city of Calgary, is expecting about 10 to 15 cm of snowfall,” said Global Calgary meteorologist Tiffany Lizze, “but to the west of Calgary, some areas could see closer to 20cm of snow.”

Most of the snow falling over Calgary Monday morning was heavy, wet snow.

“So what’s happening is we have a TROWAL moving through and what that is is a trough of warm air aloft,” said Lizee.  “So as the precipitation is falling, it’ll melt a little bit and then it’ll turn back to snow. So we have a lot of moisture content within these snowflakes. It’s giving us that more slushy snow in the city.”

While the snow is supposed to taper off late Monday, there is more in the forecast for later in the week.

“Behind the system, colder air is going to take over and swoop down from the Arctic, so we’re going to see temperatures staying below freezing,” said Lizee.

“So we do have some more snow on the way towards the middle of the week. And then we could see another heavier snowfall event Friday and into Saturday.”

While Monday’s heavy, wet snow has caused havoc on the roads and made for some difficult shoveling in Calgary, it will be welcome news in the mountains where Lizee says it will be lighter and fluffier, making it perfect snow for skiing.

Meteorologists are also keeping an eye on another big weather system in the north Pacific that could bring more to the Calgary area.

“Once we see those systems roll through towards the end of the week, we’re watching a really powerful system right now moving off of the Pacific and hitting B.C. over the next couple of days,” says Lizee.  “So we’ll see what that does and how it’s going to impact to Alberta.”