Warm Wednesday with a return to winter weather coming

Classic chinook-like conditions will bring a mid-week infusion of warmth into southern Alberta.

The forecast high for Wednesday is expected to be 22 degrees warmer than Tuesday, with Thursday’s high even warmer than that. Unfortunately, this setup lacks stability and will break down quite easily later in the day Thursday.

Precipitation that will initially remain on the eastern side of the Rockies will start to impact the leeward side of the mountains early Thursday. At the same time, cold Arctic air will slide toward Alberta’s southern border.

The timing of these converging air masses will determine how large of an area will remain warm enough to sustain rain rather than snow. There is also likely to be a transition zone between rain and snow (e.g. freezing rain), which could significantly impact road conditions.

Calgary weather futurecast for Feb. 29 at 7:30 p.m. (CTV News)

There is still uncertainty regarding how much snow Calgary and southern Alberta might see, with some models suggesting Calgary will be minimally impacted while others show Calgary in a higher accumulation area.

In the meantime, highways close to and in the mountains west of Calgary have already been significantly impacted by recent precipitation.

Highway conditions in southern British Columbia and Alberta on the morning of Feb. 28. (CTV News)

As of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, snowfall warnings and winter storm warnings remain in place along many southern British Columbia highways.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued winter storm warnings (darker blue), snowfall warnings (white), extreme cold warnings (teal), rainfall warnings (green) and wind warnings (purple) in Alberta and B.C. on Feb. 28, 2024. (CTV News)

Temperatures will swing back down on Friday to -8 C and -13 C on Saturday.

For the latest weather warnings from ECCC click here. Updated road conditions from 511 Alberta can be found here. Click here for highway conditions from Drive BC.