CALGARY -- From a spatial perspective, more of Alberta is under a weather warning than not this morning. In the north, it's snowfall warnings and winter storm warnings, all equating to 10-15 cm of snow. South of the Upper Peace region and north of Edmonton, a band of freezing rain is also piling through.
The Alberta Clipper may even trigger lightning strikes in Central Alberta!
These systems are generally fast-moving and it will be gone from our province before end-of-day, given further credence by the last band of warnings in our province: Wind warnings are present through Brooks, Kananaskis, Lethbridge, and Okotoks, in addition to the usual suspects (Cardston and Crowsnest Pass). 90-100 km/h gusts may build across that region, with the warnings potentially dropping away by the outset of the morning.
But let's talk about the second low.
Our upper-air has been showing a strengthening trough that is primed to drop into a stacked low.
That means it will be a low-pressure centre aloft (halfway up the atmosphere), all the way to ground-level. If that event should happen to roll into Montana or Wyoming, it will come along with a whole lot of snow.
As of now, that looks less likely to transpire.
I only drew on the first one, but it paints a good idea of this element's trajectory now. The eastward motion would have involved this low following the parent jet and maintaining its trajectory; instead, it will break off and drop further south. We'll still be in the zone of uplift. We'll still see snow, though at worst I see projections for only a few centimetres.
Here’s the five-day forecast:
Today:
- Partly cloudy, scattered shower potential, NW gusts to 40-50 km/h this p.m.
- Daytime high: 14 C
- Evening: mainly clear, low 1 C
Friday:
- Mainly cloudy
- Daytime high: 5 C
- Evening: low -1 C
Saturday:
- Scattered flurries
- Daytime high: -1 C
- Evening: mainly cloudy, low -8 C
Sunday:
- Mainly cloudy
- Daytime high: -6 C
- Evening: clear, low -11 C
Monday:
- Partly cloudy
- Daytime high: 3 C
- Evening: clear, low -2 C
A couple of nice photo submissions today. We start with Daneen catching the sunrise in Pincher Creek…
And move on to Jim's photos of The Porcupines, where Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud waves rolled through!
It takes some pretty strong wind shear to create these between two different air streams. There was no date attached, though similar waves rolled through last week!
You can submit your weather photos here.
