Heavy, wet snow blankets Calgary, warmup not expected until Sunday

Snow not expected to stay for long Snow not expected to stay for long. Jodi Hughes has a look at the five-day forecast from the Sky Watch Weather Centre.

As expected, a frontal system brought rain to southern Alberta, then heavy, wet snow into the region late Monday and early Tuesday.

An embedded low settled around the Calgary area, and with an atmospheric temperature profile around freezing, the early snow was very dense with water-packed around the snowflake nuclei.

Unusually warm weekend conditions allowed surfaces like roadways to retain enough heat that initial snow melted on roads while it collected on natural surfaces and vehicles.

This system will track east throughout the day Tuesday, with the leading edge still warm enough that the precipitation will be rain, before the colder air mass behind it drops the temperature.

North winds will remain strong on Tuesday and Wednesday at around 20 to 40 kilometres per hour.

Temperatures are also expected to remain well below seasonal until the end of the week, with daytime highs between nine and 11 C below average until Friday.

Another strong ridge of high pressure will move in by the end of the weekend, at the same time a polar air mass will sink south over parts of eastern Canada.