Calgary under a snowfall warning, drivers warned to be prepared

Winter arrives in the city and in the mountains City crews are scrambling and advisories are being issued as this wintry weather continues to blanket us in and out of the city.

Calgary is under a snowfall warning with total amounts of 15 to 25 centimetres expected.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued the warning on Friday, saying the snow will begin falling throughout the day, intensify on Saturday morning and continuing through until Sunday morning.

Chris Hewitt, manager of mobility maintenance with the City of Calgary, says crews will be out in full force clearing roads – with contract workers providing additional support – but people should be prepared for slow weekend commutes.

"Plan a little more time for your travel, be patient out there and expect winter driving conditions," he said.

Hewitt also asked drivers to give plows and sanders plenty of room to do their work

Calgary's Priority Snow Plan

Calgary clears snow-covered roads using a Priority Snow Plan.

Crews spend the first 18 hours after snow stops falling tackling Priority 1 routes, including roads with more than 20,000 vehicles per day, like Crowchild Trail, as well as downtown cycle tracks.

Deerfoot Trail and Stoney Trail are maintained by the provincial government.

Crews then focus on Priority 2 routes — roads that carry more than 5,000 vehicles a day — like Kensington Road and Acadia Drive, as well as designated emergency routes around hospitals and fire stations, bus routes and roads with on-street bike lanes. This is done from 18 hours after snowfall ends to 36 hours.

After that, crews turn to clearing Priority 3 routes, which include school and playground zones.

Though the city does not typically clear snow from residential streets, crews will level ruts in them as needed.

Snow-route parking bans

As of Friday, the city said It's not anticipated there will be any need for a snow route parking ban.

A snow route parking ban can be put in place to help crews clear streets from snow.

The parking bans are put in place when Calgary has seen a significant accumulation of snow.

Once called, snow-route parking bans can be in place for up to 72 hours.

Snow routes are indicated by blue signs with a white snowflake symbol.

Any vehicles left on snow routes during the ban can be ticketed or towed, but on-street accessible parking is exempt.

For more information on our winter maintenance operations and updates, visit calgary.ca/snow.

Avalanche concerns

Leslie Crawley, avalanche forecaster with Avalanche Canada, says regions in the southern Rockies and interior B.C. will also see a dump of snow, which will lead to elevated avalanche risk in the area.

"(There's) lots of new snow, the snow pack's dealing with a rapid change at the moment, so it needs time to adjust over the weekend," he cautioned. "So keep things simple and safe."

Crawley encouraged anyone venturing out to the mountains to keep an eye on avalanche forecasts at avalanche.ca.