Special weather statement issued for Calgary, 15 to 25 cm of snow expected

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a wide-spread special weather statement that includes Calgary.

Weather conditions in Calgary are expected to deteriorate rapidly starting Tuesday as a shift in the weather pattern brings Arctic air across the western Prairies.

This cold air will meet with a moist, Pacific air mass producing a classic spring scenario with heavy wet snow expected across the region.

Further complicating matters, the base of this trough (counter-clockwise rotation around a low pressure system) will sit along the southern edge of Alberta creating up sloping conditions.

Normally, weather moves from west to east across southern Alberta. During a scenario like the one currently developing in southern Alberta, systems can get anchored – or stall out - as they attempt to move in reverse (from east to west), and encounter the physical barrier of the Rocky Mountains.

A wide-spread special weather statement was issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Tuesday that includes all of southern Alberta.

A corresponding snowfall warning has been issued north of that statement, and includes Red Deer.