Alberta Storm Chasing

A trough pushed through Southern Alberta yesterday dropping about 5 cm of snow in Calgary. Road crews had been out the previous night spraying an anti-icing agent on most of the main roads in the city. The snow started quite early yesterday and stuck around most of the day, though at times it was to light for the dopplar to pick it up. Later in the evening the snow picked up again and when returning from a friend's for dinner, the snow was starting to stick to the road. Over night is when Calgary got most of it's snow. Amounts were in the 5-10 cm range and a SNOWFALL WARNING has been up ever since. Though the sun is out as I write this and I expect the warnings for here will be good soon.

Warnings

City of Calgary
8:40 AM MST Tuesday 24 February 2009
Snowfall warning for
City of Calgary continued

10-15 cm of snow expected by this evening.

A vigorous disturbance currently over central Washington state will track eastward today to lie in central Montana by this evening. The disturbance carries with it mild pacific air laden with moisture. At the same time a cold dense Arctic airmass is pushing southward across Alberta. The two airmasses will collide over southern Alberta creating conditions favourable for significant snowfall with accumulations in the 10-15 cm range expected. Areas in the southwestern foothills may see enhanced accumulations with the addition of an upslope component.

Most of the southern half of the province, from Airdire to the US border is under a warning. Most of the snow fell in the extreme southern areas of the province were 10 + cm had been reported over night. Reports from members of the site have 30 cm (2-4cm/hr) on the ground in Kananaskis and the snow is still falling. Checking the GFS, there seems like there will be a lull in the snow and will the reintensify later this evening were another 2-4 cm are predicted to fall. Not all the models agree with this though so we will have to wait and see.

It was nice having some weather again today since all we have been having in sunny days, but with it came the cold weather. Highs today are -12 C and tomorrow even cooler. There is a 60% chance of snow tomorrow with another 2-4 cm predictied to fall.

Another beautiful day here in Southern Alberta. The skies are clear and the temperature in a comfortable 4 C this afternoon. The weather has been quite pleasant but the colder temperatures will be back this week. Took a walk on Nose Hill in NW Calgary to replace a geocache that had been stolen. Unfortunately I left the replacement at home but still got a walk in. Lots of people out and about today walking their dogs and enjoying the warm weather.

The weather here in Calgary has been pretty uneventful the pass week with only the light dusting to report but looking at the GFS Model there will be a change in the weather, finally. Looks as if a system will be pushing through Alberta early this week with the most action Monday thru Tuesday morning. The models have changed alot through the pass few days but it looks now that over the next week we'll see somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10 cm.  As usual the Foothills and Front Ranges will see most of the precipatation which should be good for the ski resorts.

Also there is a chance again of severe weather in the Southern United State toward the middle of next week. Seems lately that there is severe weather event once a week in these regions as the storm season nears. Only a few more months! 

SPC's Convective Outlook looked very promising for the development of severe thunderstorms and supercells yesterday. Parts of Georgia and Mississippi experienced severe weather late in the afternoon as a system pushed acrossed the Eastern United States. Violent thunderstorms roared across parts of Georgia killing 1 person in the town of Sparta, SE of Atlanta. 14 others were injured through out the state. There were reports of 100 structures damaged in Jasper County and hail the size of golf balls  were also reported within these storms. Radar picked up these tornadic storms (below) as a line of severe thunderstorms ripped  across Central Georgia. Most of the tornadic activities were located in the southern portion of the state along the Georgia/Florida borader.

Looks as if the weather will be uneventful in the tornado effected states for the next few days.

With that said there is more weather moving into Southern Alberta in the upcoming days. Today there is a risk of 1-3 cm as a weak trough pushes through the southern half of Alberta. Late in the weekend and early next week looks to be more of a snow event. The GFS has changed a bit in the amounts of precip from 15-20 cm earlier in the week to only about 15 cm combined over three days. But with the constent changes we won't know until it gets here I guess.

It's been over a week since we have gotten any weather other than sun so this weekends storm and the snow tonight will be a pleasant change.

Severe thunderstorms rushed across parts of Oklahoma and Texas yesterday causing extensive damage, injuries and some deaths. Lone Cove, OK located on the TX/OK boarder seems to get hit the hardest when a tornado ripped through the town. 2 were killed and over two dozen injured as the tornado blew through the city yesterday. Buildings were ripped apart, a mall severly damaged and many trees uproot throughout the small boarder town. In total 4 tornadoes were reported with most reports coming from Oklahoma and one tornado reported in Texas. Today as the storms move east the likely hood of some more severe weather still exists in parts of Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana and Georgia.

Closer to home the talk is still about the winter weather. A slow moving system moved through southern Alberta yesterday morning causing hazoc for most Calgarians. The warm weather of the last week has produced quite a few puddles which over night froze into skating rinks. The fresh layer of snow didn't help either. Environment Canada predicted the snowfall to be only 1-3 cm but as the storm approached it slowed a cause a higher amount. The accumulations were more like 5-8 cm when the storm exitted the city around noon. Looks like the cold weather is back for the next week and still there is a possiblity of some dustings throughout the weekend. Tuesday next week looks to be the next time we'll see some

warmer temperatures.

A Noreaster slammed into Atlantic Canada Tuesday dumping up to 30 cm of snow, wind and freezing rain across most of Atlantic Canada. The majority of the storm stayed out in open ocean but still caused a great deal of headaches for Maritimers who have been quoted as saying the winter hasn't been to bad this year. We'll have to see what they say by the end of the week as a second storm develops over the Great Lakes later this week then heads once again to the Maritimes.

Nova Scotia seemed to get the brunt of this storm with the town of East Dalhousie getting over 40 cm of snow while Greenwood reported over 30 cm.  Highway 104 from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick was closed for most yesterday but has openned today. I'm sure there were more than a few happy students as schools across Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick were closed yesterday and again today do to the poor road conditions. Newfoundland was hit the hardest with wind, freezing rain and rain as the warmer air being funnelled into the storm inhibited snow accumulations. Labrador experienced blizzard conditions for most of the evening and over night Tuesday.

Here are the storm summaries from Environment Canada:

HERE IS A BRIEF SUMMARY OF SNOWFALL TOTALS AS OF 2 AM LOCAL TIME
WEDNESDAY.

NOTE: (*) DENOTES VOLUNTEER WEATHER OBSERVERS.

LOCATIONS IN NOVA SCOTIA                     SNOWFALL AMOUNT (CM)
-----------------------------------------                      -------------------
CLAYTON PARK (*)                                       12
EAST DALHOUSIE (*)                                   45
GREENWOOD                                               31.1
HALIFAX A'PORT                                           18.4
LIVERPOOL (*)                                              17
SCOTTS BAY (*)                                            27
SYLVESTER (*)                                             22
SYDNEY CITY (*)                                          13
SYDNEY A'PORT                                            8
WEST BROOKLYN (*)                                  25
YARMOUTH A'PORT                                    22.6

THE FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF SOME OF THE ACTUAL REPORTED
PRECIPITATION TOTALS AND MAXIMUM WIND GUSTS AS OF 8.30 AM NST TODAY IN

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR.

PRECIPITATION TOTALS ---------------------------
ST JOHN'S AIRPORT .... 15 MM (RAIN)
ARGENTIA ............. 17 MM (RAIN)
WINTERLAND ........... 27 MM (RAIN)
ST. LAWRENCE ......... 20 MM (RAIN)
GANDER ...............  3 CM (SNOW) 13 MM (RAIN/FREEZING RAIN)
DEER LAKE.............  7 CM (SNOW)  4 MM (RAIN/FREEZING RAIN)
STEPHENVILLE .........  7 CM (SNOW)  0.5 MM (RAIN/FREEZING RAIN)
ST. ANTHONY AIRPORT ..  9 CM (SNOW)

MAXIMUM WIND GUSTS ------------------------------
WRECKHOUSE .......... 133 KM/H
SAGONA ISLAND ....... 122 KM/H
PORT-AUX BASQUES .... 102 KM/H
ST. LAWRENCE ........ 102 KM/H
WINTERLAND ..........  98 KM/H
BONAVISTA ...........  87 KM/H
ARGENTIA ............  85 KM/H

HERE IS A SHORT SUMMARY OF SNOWFALL AMOUNTS AS OF 2 AM LOCAL TIME IN NEW BRUNSWICK.

LOCATION                     SNOWFALL AMOUNT (CM)
--------                              ------------------
FREDERICTON                   10
MONCTON                            16.6
ST. JOHN                              14.8

HERE IS A SHORT SUMMARY OF SNOWFALL TOTALS AS OF 2 AM LOCAL TIME IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

NOTE: (*) DENOTES VOLUNTEER WEATHER OBSERVATIONS.

LOCATION                               SNOWFALL AMOUNT (CM)
--------                                         -----------------
CHARLOTTETOWN                19.6
ELMWOOD (*)                           20+