Flurries, possible freezing rain in Calgary Tuesday evening

It’s still there. Barely. But the possibility of freezing rain has not been completely dismissed yet.

Late this evening, our temperature will likely have fallen away far enough to present flurries, instead of anything else – all the same, there’s potential for that layer to sit a little closer to the freezing mark and drop freezing rain thanks to a warm front moving through, especially in central Alberta. Most forecast models place the capital region beneath the freezing rain event, and then fall into arguing with each other when predicting how far south and east it goes.

Some show HWY-56 north of Drumheller getting a coat of ice overnight; others keep it north of Red Deer. 

UPDATE: Environment Canada has issued a number of weather statements to this effect; Edmonton still holds as the strongest chance for freezing rain. Calgary is included. Warnings will be issued when a verified freezing rain event is imminent.This low’s strengthening overnight will generate plenty of warmth along the southern foothills, with some strong gust potential – maybe even enough to build a wind warning or two (Crowsnest and Cardston, if we're naming names - UPDATE - Crowsnest! Nothing yet for Cardston - UPDATE AGAIN: Cardston, too, now).

The total projected precipitation, regardless of this evening's offering, will remain a small number. This holds true tomorrow, as well, as a large low slates to roll free of northern Alberta before swinging like a pendulum into southern Saskatchewan, then returning northward near Thompson, Manitoba. The warm front from this setup will get to us early in the day, but the cold front in the afternoon will have the last word and push our temperature away from a positive high by the early afternoon. This, too, could generate flurries for southern Alberta, though snowfall totals aren’t expected to amount to more than 1-2 cm for communities in southern Alberta.

Believe it or not, we may also catch the rare phenomenon of thundersnow at some points along that cold front's passage! Conditions look good, but time will tell…

YOUR FIVE-DAY FORECAST:

Tonight:

• Evening: chance of freezing rain/flurries, low -4 C

Wednesday:

• Partly cloudy, NW pm gusts (50 km/h), another chance of afternoon flurries (1-2 cm)
• Daytime high: 3 C – downtrending
• Evening: some cloud, low -8 C

Thursday:

• Partly cloudy
• Daytime high: -1 C
• Evening: some cloud, low -6 C

Friday:

• Mainly sunny
• Daytime high: -1 C
• Evening: some cloud, low -3 C

Saturday:

• Mainly sunny
• Daytime high: 6 C
• Evening: some cloud, low -3 C

Sunday:

• Mainly sunny
• Daytime high: 1 C
• Evening: some cloud, low -7 C

Jim snapped a beauty from Nose Hill for us:

Send us your weather pics! You can submit your photos here, email me here, or tweet them over!