CALGARY -- Remember ages ago, when Calgary got all the way up to 27 C, just for flurries to work their way back in tomorrow?

Oh wait – that 27 C day was Monday.

Gotta love Alberta.

Here's the pattern:

May 19, weather pattern, NOAA

Pacific moisture is guided along by the orange line, passing across the Rockies through Idaho and Montana, straight back to us, where temperature support is all but nonexistent. The thicker, black line is the jet stream – it diving way south of us means cold air will be sticking around and helping generate snow.

Along the foothills, warnings have been placed, where higher elevations could see snowfall totals hit the 20 centimetre mark. Lower elevations will push to 10+ cm along the foothills, and then our southern border will run with 5-10 cm as the entire system slides eastward. It should go without saying that temperature trends are falling to supportive levels for this snow. Cover your outdoor vegetation, and bring your potted plants indoors for the next couple of days. The lows are not going to be kind.

Over the course of the week, the expectations for a lovely May long weekend have done… well, essentially what they do. Temperatures are expected to remain below normal, with showers for Sunday and Monday. I'm doing some digging into Victoria Day long weekends of the last decade, just to see how consistently we get short-changed by them. The details will be posted on my Twitter account. (UPDATE: here it is)

Your five-day forecast:

Today:

  • Some cloud, chance of scattered showers, wind gusts NE 40-55 km/h
  • Daytime high: 10 C
  • Evening: chance of showers becoming a chance of flurries, high 0 C

Thursday:

  • Cloudy, scattered flurries
  • Daytime high: 3 C
  • Evening: largely cloudy, high -1 C

Friday:

  • Mostly cloudy
  • Daytime high: 7 C
  • Evening: some cloud, low 1 C

Saturday:

  • Partly cloudy
  • Daytime high: 11 C
  • Evening: some cloud, low 2 C

Sunday:

  • Showers
  • Daytime high: 8 C
  • Evening: some cloud, low 4 C

Photo time!

Jan took a drive down to Waterton Lakes and took along this brilliant photograph:

Waterton Lakes National Park, Jan, scenery

Kevin also caught up with the mountains:

Rockies, mountains, Kevin, Rocky Mountains

…and so did Carol, on her way up the Banff Gondola!

Banff, gondola, Carol

It's always great to see people enjoying our province. You can submit your weather photos here, or email me: Kevin Stanfield , OR you can just tweet at me!