Latest snow will be slow to melt, with only one day above 0 C this week

Portions of Calgary ended up with a massive amount of snow in a short period of time after a narrow band of precipitation parked over the north half of the city Wednesday.

Environment and Climate Change Canada had to include Calgary in their yellow-level snowfall warning on Wednesday morning as that system set up from the Bow Valley Parkway to Calgary and was dropping around three centimetres of snow per hour at times.

Total accumulations were highly variable—at YYC International, the unofficial snowfall total was more than 17 centimetres Wednesday, whereas portions of south Calgary saw very little snow.

Traffic was significantly impacted by this event, with some hills, intersections, and side streets (especially in north Calgary) bogged down with snow and major routes needing to be cleared multiple times.

A second system rolled through the region overnight, so as of Thursday morning there was a measurable amount of snow on the ground across the city.

Unfortunately, the upper pattern has shifted, and it looks like a cooler pattern will persist across southern Alberta after Friday.

Daytime highs will climb to -4 C late in the day Thursday and eventually to around 8 C on Friday, but a strong polar air mass is expected to steer a Pacific ridge south of the border starting Saturday.

Daytime highs will range from -4 C to -1 C until the middle of next week—compared to the average high of 6 C.

There will be some melting, especially on Friday, but the nature of this snow—and the amount in some areas—could create challenges with water pooling near storm drains and at the base of hills or slopes.

More snow is possible in Calgary on Sunday and Monday, and it is likely that snow will be typical of spring (and similar to the snow from Wednesday), where it is both wet and heavy, making it difficult to shovel and creating slush on roadways.