Calgary under a snowfall warning, drivers warned to be prepared

Calgary is under a snowfall warning with total amounts of 15 to 25 centimetres expected.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued the warning on Friday, saying the snow will begin falling throughout the day, intensify on Saturday morning and continuing through until Sunday morning.

On its website, the City of Calgary warns that residents should be prepared for winter conditions on their weekend commutes.

“Bundle up, and leave plenty of time to arrive at your destination.”

Calgary clears snow-covered roads using a Priority Snow Plan.

Crews spend the first 18 hours after snow stops falling tackling Priority 1 routes, including roads with more than 20,000 vehicles per day, like Crowchild Trail, as well as downtown cycle tracks.

Deerfoot Trail and Stoney Trail are maintained by the provincial government.

Crews then focus on Priority 2 routes — roads that carry more than 5,000 vehicles a day — like Kensington Road and Acadia Drive, as well as designated emergency routes around hospitals and fire stations, bus routes and roads with on-street bike lanes. This is done from 18 hours after snowfall ends to 36 hours.

After that, crews turn to clearing Priority 3 routes, which include school and playground zones.

Though the city does not typically clear snow from residential streets, crews will level ruts in them as needed.

As of Friday morning, no snow route parking ban was in effect.

A snow route parking ban can be put in place to help crews clear streets from snow.

The parking bans are put in place when Calgary has seen a significant accumulation of snow.

Once called, snow-route parking bans can be in place for up to 72 hours.

Snow routes are indicated by blue signs with a white snowflake symbol.

Any vehicles left on snow routes during the ban can be ticketed or towed, but on-street accessible parking is exempt.

For more information on our winter maintenance operations and updates, visit calgary.ca/snow.