Highway travel west of Calgary expected to deteriorate Wednesday and Thursday
After record heat in southern Alberta and B.C. Tuesday, Wednesday’s forecast mirrors the US post office creed – with rain, sleet, snow and ice all possible. The atmospheric river that impacted the Pacific coastline Tuesday continues to funnel moisture in to southern British Columbia and Alberta, and as usual elevation, time and local temperature will dictate what type of precipitation falls.
Early Wednesday Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) issued snowfall warnings for areas west of Calgary, including Banff National Park noting, “rain will change to snow this morning with the heaviest snow expected to fall overnight.” The weather agency warns up to 15 centimetres of snow could fall in the parkway. This comes on the heels of 20 centimetres of snow in Rogers Pass Tuesday.
Highway travel in the higher elevations in the Rockies – including Highway 93 from Jasper to the Saskatchewan River Crossing and from Lake Louise to the Saskatchewan River Crossing – are expected to worsen over then next 24 hours – with a winter storm warning issued for that area. Rainfall warnings have been issued along Highway 3 from Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass in B.C. with ECCC cautioning between 20 to 40 mm of rain is possible.
On Tuesday, portions of this region received 50 to 86 milimetres of rain. Complicating matters, this cool down is related to a cold front tracking eastward across southern B.C. Wednesday and into Thursday.
With the diurnal cooldown, ECCC advises “snowfall warnings may possibly be issued (for the Kootenay region).” Calgary is likely to see some moisture from this same system, but after a daytime high Tuesday of 17 C, the risk to surface traction is low. Eight Alberta locations set new maximum temperature records for Tuesday, Dec.
5 including Bow Island area with 18.6 C (previous record of 12.8 C from 1962), Sundre area at 15.5 C (old record of 6.7 C set in 1999) and Taber area at 17.2 C (old record of 13 C from 1988). Calgary’s record high for Dec.
5 was 19 C, so even a 17 C was not enough to make history. Daytime highs for Calgary return to a seasonal range starting Thursday with daytime highs hovering around freezing.
For the latest weather advisories from Environment and Climate Change Canada click here[1].
Drive BC highway conditions can be found here[2], and click here[3] for the latest on Alberta Roads from 511 Alberta.
References
- ^ click here (weather.gc.ca)
- ^ found here (www.drivebc.ca)
- ^ click here (511.alberta.ca)