An unseasonably warm January had Calgarians embracing spring conditions in the throes of winter, but Friday night’s snow quickly reintroduced local drivers to winter driving.
On Saturday, between midnight and noon, Calgary police responded to 95 collisions on city roads, 10 of which involved injuries. The most serious of the crashes occurred early Saturday morning on Bow Bottom Trail in which a car struck a retaining wall and a light standard.
“It’s the last day of January but we’ve been lucky to have some with pretty mild weather for the last couple of weeks,” said EMS spokesperson Adam Loria. “It’s time for a slight reminder of some winter driving tips.
Loria reminds motorists to ensure their vehicles are winterized with proper tread and tires, and to allow additional stopping distance for stopping.
While some Calgarians were disappointed to see the return of snow, most were taking the seasonal precipitation in stride with fond memories of the recent warm snap.
“It was great, almost got the bike out,” said Keith James in the midst of a shoveling job he expected would take roughly an hour. “It’s been a pretty good winter.”
“Not too happy about it but it is what it is, it’s Calgary,” said Steve Hollander as he cleared the snow from the windshield of his vehicle.
The snow did not prevent Liam Dempsey and his son Griffin from digging out their hats and gloves and heading outside.
“Getting them out of the house is the difficult part, but once they’re out they’re happy,” said Liam. “Having them in the house and going crazy, it’s better to be out.”
CTV meteorologist Steve Rothfels says sporadic light snow is predicted throughout the next few days with forecasted highs expected in the -10C range.
