Calgary under new snowfall warning, with 15-25 cm expected ...

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Calgary has already seen plenty of snow this week and it’s expected there will more of it through the weekend, with the city and a large portion of the province placed under a snowfall warning.

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Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says Calgary can expect snow to fall for an extended period with anywhere from 15 to 25 centimetres hitting the Stampede City, with the peak of the snowfall expected on Saturday.

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On Friday, the temperature is expected to reach -11 C during the day, feeling closer to -18 with the wind chill. The temperature is forecast to hold steady, reaching -12 C, feeling like -19 with the wind chill.

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Snowfall will begin in southern Alberta Friday morning, spreading northward through the day, the national weather office said in its warning. In Calgary, it’s expected that the snow will hit the city by late this morning.

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Precipitation intensity will vary through the day and into the evening, with amounts of five to 10 centimetres anticipated by Saturday morning.

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The snow is then expected to intensify early Saturday morning, with another 10 to 15 centimetres anticipated by Saturday evening, Environment Canada said. The snowfall should end in Calgary by early Sunday morning.

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This week’s sudden shift in the weather followed an extended period of warmer, dryer conditions.

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“When we’re looking at our normals for the month of November, in terms of snow for Calgary, you should see 18 to 19 centimetres through the month and we’ve had a pretty easy go of it,” said Christy Climenhaga, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “For us as human beings on a day-to-day basis, because we’ve been so eased into this fall and it has been so mild, that’s the shocking thing.”

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Relatively frigid conditions are expected to continue through the rest of November, she added.

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“We’re seeing a cooler note for much of Alberta taking us right through the first couple of days of December and then we’ll get a little bit of relief,” Climenhaga said. “We might get a day or two of milder weather before that, but it does look like generally the next week or so, we’ll be on the cooler side.”

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City of Calgary resets snow clearing plan

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Although this weekend’s bout of weather means a reset of Calgary’s priority snow plan, the bulk of the work clearing streets after Monday’s snowstorm had been completed, a city official said.

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The plan calls for such thoroughfares as Macleod Trail and Crowchild Trail to be kept clear until snowfall ends. Efforts then shift to priority two roads, which encompasses high-volume community roads and transit routes like Acadia Drive and Kensington Road, before crews move onto less-busy streets.

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“The timing was quite reasonable for us,” said Chris Hewitt, manager of mobility maintenance for the City of Calgary, of the forecast snowfall.