Alberta Clipper to Bring Widespread 10-15cm to Alberta and Saskatchewan Beginning Tuesday
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Nothing says January in the Prairies quite like negative double-digit temperatures and an Alberta Clipper bringing a healthy dumping of snow which is exactly what many can expect to see over the next couple of days.
The snow will start to make its way into Alberta from the Rockies shortly after midnight Tuesday and spread across Central and Southern Alberta through the morning hours.
The heaviest snowfall is expected to fall in Central Alberta, covering a swath from Grande Prairie and Grande Cache and through Edmonton to Wainright and Lloydminster.
This region, along with the Rockies, falls under the 10-15cm range for snowfall. Areas closer to the Rockies and in the Foothills can be expected to be closer to 15cm and potentially up to 20cm locally while Edmonton and eastward will be closer to 10cm.
This will be a fairly short-lived event for Alberta with the hardest hit areas only receiving snow for a maximum of 12 hours and snowfall rates aren’t expected to be particularly high so overall accumulations will be limited. By early Wednesday morning, the snow will end for the province.
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In Saskatchewan, the snowfall will begin to cross the border in the late morning and once again, the Central region of the province will be the hardest hit area with 10-15cm expected to fall.
This encompasses an area from Lloydminster and Kindersley, across Saskatoon and eastward to Hudson Bay and Yorkton. Wednesday morning will see the system stall after it crosses the border with Manitoba and East Central Saskatchewan will likely be on the higher end of the 10-15cm range along with the possibility of higher snowfall totals locally by the time the snow ends overnight Wednesday into early Thursday.
After finally crossing the border into Manitoba, the system will once again stall over Southwestern Manitoba. At this point, there is some disagreement between weather models regarding exactly how much snow this region can expect and a slight change in speed or trajectory could make a big difference in accumulation totals. As a result, we will be holding off on publishing a forecast until Tuesday evening.
