Winter is coming soon, but the snow didn’t want to wait any longer in Alberta.
Special weather statements and snowfall warnings covered parts of southern Alberta to start the week, with some areas forecast to see as much as 15 cm with this season’s first wintry blast.
A low-pressure system, which began to bring snow Sunday night in northern locales, was responsible for the slippery conditions that worsened across the southern foothills shortly after the precipitation started to fall on Monday.
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Snow developed across Calgary through the late-afternoon hours, accumulating in the evening and early-overnight hours. The result was deteriorating travel conditions, especially as temperatures fell below zero and surfaces became slick and slippery. More many areas, temperatures struggled to even climb above the freezing mark on Monday.
Because it’s early in the season and the ground is still warm, the snow had a tough time accumulating on surfaces. Mostly fair weather will now dominate mid and late week, with temperatures soaring back to the 20-degree mark across southern Alberta by Saturday.
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October 2018 still holds the record for Calgary’s largest October snowfall when 32.8 cm fell. More recently on Oct. 22, 2022, 21 cm was reported in the city, as well.
Once the snow started falling, it didn’t take long for the visuals to surface on social media. Here’s a look at the first wintry scenes to hit Alberta this season.
Well that ends our snowless streak in Calgary ☹️.
We’ve got some very light snow grains coming down right now. It feels COLD out here. 🥶
The snow will pick up as the day goes on and may accumulate a couple of centimetres on cold surfaces overnight#abstorm #yyc pic.twitter.com/8qzOzm0fNX
— Ben Chernesky (@BenChernesky) October 21, 2024
Thumbnail courtesy of Tom Graham/X/@Washed_Up, taken in Kananaskis Country, Alta.
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