Alberta Storm Chasing

The snow keeps flying here in Alberta and winter just won't let us go! It seems as though winter has become quite fancy of Alberta and doesn't want us to have a spring. Another moisture laden storm moved in from Montana dumping as much as 40 cm in places like Bragg Creek. We got a good dumping here in Calgary were reports of anywhere from 10-25 cm fell. The picture above was sent in from Kananaskis Village by Albertastormchasing.webs.com contributor George Graham, who took the picture after 35+ cm fell in the mountain village just west of Calgary.

More snow is predicted throughout the week but nothing as heavy as the last two storms this week. I believe Springbank (10 min west of Calgary city limits) has recorded 60 cm during the two storms this week.

The PASPC Center in Winnipeg was saying there is a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow along the Foothills, but the chance is very slim. Spring is just around the corner I can feel it, but we'll still have to wait a few more weeks.

Winter! Leave us alone!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a week where highs stayed in the plus' and the low teens, we are back to the wintery conditions that we can't seem to shake here in Wild Rose Country. A wintery mix of snow, rain and freezing rain pushed  in north from Montana today and left most of us wishing that winter would just bugger off! I love a good storm as much as the next guy and I did find myself watching through the window as this system pushed through but this winter is getting old, fast! Hopefully spring will come and along with it some thunderstorms.

 This storm had access to plenty of moisture as it travelled through the province, dropping 18 cm on the east end of the city and 25 cm on the west side. Freezing rain was reported in the SE corner of the Alberta and the mountains again got hammered with Canmore seeing a whopping 38 cm. As with this storm, most of the storms that have hit the city this year have come on the weekend cutting down on the accidents, but the city still needs to work on there snow removal skills.

Here are the unofficial amounts from Environment Canada:

AWCN15 CWWG 222318
Summary weather statement issued by Environment Canada at 5:18 PM MDT
Sunday 22 March 2009.

Summary of severe weather events and forecasts from 12.00 AM MDT
Sunday to 5.00 PM MDT Sunday.

Spring snowstorm gives heavy snow to Alberta:

Unofficial snowfall amounts reported as of 5 PM Sunday March 22 2009.

Calgary                 18 cm airport      25 cm west end of city
Springbank              34 cm
Canmore                 38 cm
Okotoks                 30 cm
Red Deer                15 cm
Sundre                  14 cm
Bow Valley              11 cm
Rocky Mountain House     9 cm
Cardston                 9 cm
Banff                    8 cm
Wainwright              12 cm
Breton                  14 cm
Sherwood Park           10 cm
Stony Plain              7 cm
Spruce Grove            10 cm
Smoky Lake              15 cm
Cold Lake               13 cm
Boyle                   10 cm

Looks like the week ahead has some more wintery weather forecasted almost everyday. But on the plus side the end of the week will be back in the double digits, but the way this winter has been who really knows.

Also it was nice to see that severe thunderstorm watches went up in SW Manitoba today as a system pushed in from the Dakotas where strong winds and hail were reported. Above is the radar imagery of some of the storms from this afternoon in Manitoba. I wonder when we will have our turn for some thunderstorms.

Well this is my second attempt at this blog entry since my internet explore love to not respond! Anyway back to the weather and really there hasn't been much to report. There has been some record low set across the central part of the province but thats about it. We did have an interesting day on Saturday when there were some big temperature differences throughout the city. The International Airport in the NE of the city reported a daytime high of -3.6 C and on the extreme western side of the city at COP (Calgary Olympic Park) were they recorded a balmy +5.6 C. Also yesterday a friend reported that in the SW part of the city on Glenmore Trail that ice pellets had fallen for rughly 5 minutes.

For the most part though the city has been quite in the weather department. Spring has been in the air for the past week with most daytime high staying in the plus side of the mercury. Tomorrow's high is 9 C and Friday's high is even warmer at 12 C. Saturday will bring us the first rain of the season which means thunderstorm season can't be all that far off. Sunday will bring a wintery mix back to the southern part of Alberta but temperatures will rise again early next week.

I am sick of winter and that is official. I find myself watching the SPC site constently or watching Youtube to get my fix in the thunderstorm department. My Dad who lives in SW Ontario reported that they did get some thunderstorms tonight!! I was on the Extremewx.ca site today and they reported that at this time last year we had already seen our first convective activity.

What a fortunate change in events last night. Since the last post the weather outlook had changed quite a bit from the 5-10 cm posted last blog entry too 1-3 cm on the EC website and only a trace on the Weather Channel website. The models were still showing at least 5 cm up until yesterday morning and around 8:30 pm Saturday night, things changed. Coming out of the grocery store in the NW, we could see out the windows that the wind was just howling and the snow was intense. In the first 5 mins of the storm, it had already dropped about 3 cm and more was to come. The normal 15 min drive back home turned into a 30 min whiteout adventure. Cars and trucks alike were crawling down the normally well light Center St., but were now following one anothers taillights as a guide. Finally when we got home I ran upstairs to grab my pic ( which was nearly out of batteries) to snap a few pictures. At around 11:30 EC issued a Blizzard Warning, which lasted for 6 hours throughout the night. It's hard to judge the amount of snow that officially fell do to the strong winds but my estimate would be around the 10 cm mark. It was the first blizzard I had ever experienced in my life but I'm sure it won't be the last as the weather in Alberta, I am finding is very unpredictable.

In other weather news, severe thunderstorms raced across parts of SW/SC Kansas last night. These storms produced 7 tornados throughout the state but luckly there were no reports of injuries. As the system pushes eastward into Missouri it has forced the SPC to again issue more tornado warning today for that state. Below is one of the tornadic thunderstorms that effected the prairie state of Kansas.

NOTE: For some reason the new pictures have over written old pictures on some of the older blog enteries and don't know how to fix the problem. Sorry for the inconvience.

Snow squalls moved through Calgary today as a cold front pushed though the province. In the wake of the front, high winds ripped through the southern and eastern portions of the province forcing EC to issue wind warnings for much of the eastern half of the province. Wind gusts of 100 km/hr were reported in the city during the early morning hours as well as NE of Calgary in towns such as Beisker and Acme. The Trans Canada Highway was closed for much of the day between Strathmore and Brooks as white-outs and icy conditions reaked havoc on travellers in the area. Also in the early morning hours, Highway 2 from Red Deer to Ponoka was closed as conditions quickly deteriorated. All of the wind warnings are now down for the areas and the snow is also tapering off.

The GFS was showing that snow was to move through the area late in the weekend but now is expected to hit a day earlier. Saturday night looks to be when the snow will start to fly again with Calgary looked to receive roughly 5-10 cm of the white stuff. Then on Sunday as the system leaves the area, another 1-3 cm is expected. Models have jumped around, as they often do. Initially the heaviest snow was expected in the mountain areas, from Kananaskis to Waterton, but has now pushed the snow farther east hitting the city.

Will have to check the models again tomorrow to see if there is any other changes. Looks like the snowy weather and the nipping cold is here to stay for a while. In the middle of next week we are expected to get another 1-3 cm, but things could change. Either way it's nice to see weather!!