‘Significant’ snowfall to continue for Calgary and southern Alberta

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Wet, heavy snow that toppled trees and led to power outages in Calgary on Tuesday is expected to continue later into the week.

Calgary remains under a special weather statement, while areas west of the city under a snowfall warning brace for accumulations of up to 50 centimetres.

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Due to accumulating snow and ice, the city postponed street sweeping for the communities of Scenic Acres, Somerset, Riverbend, Quarry Park, Willow Park, Wildwood, Spruce Cliff and Shaganappi.

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City of Calgary mobility spokesman Chris McGeachy said postponed communities can watch the city’s website for new dates, which should be available within 24 hours. It is expected sweeping dates will be rescheduled to June.

Sweeping will continue as planned for the communities of Bridgeland, Panorama Hills, Whitehorn and University Heights, and is expected to continue as scheduled on Wednesday — weather permitting.

More than 2,000 Enmax customers were affected at the height of power outages early Tuesday, which were still being fixed throughout the morning.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, nearly all the outages had been repaired.

In an emailed statement, Enmax said its system can withstand temperature variations and other extreme weather conditions, including heavy snowfall. “However, downed branches and trees can pose a risk to power lines and public safety.”

The city’s 311 line had 156 service requests for tree concerns as of 1 p.m., up from 22 earlier in the morning.

“It appears that the south half of the city was impacted more than the north,” read a statement from the city. “Urban forestry staff are assessing damage to trees and determining which need to be pruned or removed due to safety concerns.”

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Officials encouraged residents to report trees that appear damaged on city property by calling 311.

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Weather affecting highway driving conditions outside Calgary

Some highways in the Calgary region — mainly south and west of the city — were partly covered with snow or ice Tuesday afternoon, but clearer than earlier in the day according to 511 Alberta.

Alberta RCMP responded to a jack-knifed semi blocking one side of Highway 1 near Canmore around 5:30 a.m. No injuries were reported according to a spokesperson. There have been no reports of other incidents as of early Tuesday afternoon.

The system that dumped anywhere from five to 15 centimeters of snow overnight tapered off Tuesday morning, with another bout of precipitation expected to move into the Calgary region through the afternoon according to Environment Canada meteorologist Justin Shelley.

“It’s going to bring some mixed precipitation, possibly some more flurries to the region during the day,” he said.

For Calgary roads, McGeachy said with warmer road surface temperatures most of the snow is melting on impact.

“This isn’t in the winter where we typically have the priority plan,” he said. “We’re focused really on the trouble spots, if there’s safety concerns.”

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The city’s spring cleanup program is intended to pick up material left over from the winter. McGeachy said they don’t want to add more to the roads.

“We’re being tactical with how we apply our material.”

Meanwhile, more snow is on the way overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.

“We’re expecting another significant amount of snowfall to move into the Calgary region specifically, as well as other portions of southwestern Alberta,” Shelley said.

Snowfall amounts from 10 to 15 centimetres are possible by end of Wednesday, with most accumulation over by Thursday, said Shelley.

“We are going to see a bit of a reprieve after Thursday and into Friday, we’ll see those temperatures rebound a bit by the end of the week.”

Temperatures Wednesday and Thursday are forecast to hover around 3 C during the day, and rebound Friday and Saturday to near 10 C.

The Alberta Motor Association said call volumes were slightly above normal for Calgary as of Tuesday afternoon, and below normal for Lethbridge and Medicine Hat this time of year.

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“Calls are the usual mix of boosts and tows, and we’re currently not seeing anything out of the ordinary,” the emailed statement read.

One school south of the city was closed Tuesday. Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School asked students, employees and contractors not to attend its campus “due to continued heavy snowfall and dangerous road conditions surrounding the school,” it said it a written statement issued to media early in the day.

30+ cm of snow in areas west of Calgary, with more possibly on the way

For areas west and south of Calgary over higher terrain, Shelley said they’ve had reports from places such as Turner Valley and Longview of snowfall in excess of 30 centimeters.

“That little bit of extra elevation cools the airmass enough to give that extra amount of snowfall accumulation,” he said.

“This long duration snowfall event could produce total snowfall amounts as high as 30 to 50 cm,” Environment Canada said in its warnings for parts of Kananaskis Country, the Municipal District of Bighorn, Foothills County and the Municipal District of Willow Creek.

Snow in those regions will become lighter through Wednesday night before tapering off to flurries by Thursday evening, forecasters said.

“Rapidly accumulating snow could make travel difficult over some locations,” the warning said. “Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow.”

Meanwhile, a special weather statement covering the city of Calgary was expanded by Tuesday morning to include regions almost as far north as Edson and stretching to the U.S. border, between the Rocky Mountains and Highway 2.

“The snow will be heavy and wet, and will be mixed with rain in some areas, so total snowfall accumulations will vary widely,” the weather office said.

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