Roofs blown off buildings, trees uprooted, highways closed, motorists stranded in their vehicles by heavy snow — those are just a few of the problems caused by a nasty spring storm that has slammed into Alberta.
In the Fort McMurray area, RCMP shut down several roads because of extremely poor driving conditions that resulted in some motorists being stranded for hours in their vehicles.
Several highways, including stretches of Highway 63 near Fort McMurray, have been shut down because of heavy snow and high winds and RCMP in eastern Alberta are warning motorists to avoid unnecessary travel.
Source: 511Alberta
In Edmonton, drivers were faced with dangerous driving conditions, including snow, ice and strong winds, as they made their way into work Friday morning, sending vehicles into the ditch or crashing into each other.
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A flipped-over semi in Edmonton, where motorists endured a treacherous Friday morning commute.
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In Calgary, wind gusts of nearly 90 kilometres per hour toppled trees, tore the roofs off buildings and flipped over semi-trucks.
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The high winds also forced the cancellation of the “Parade of Wonders” — the kick-off celebration for the annual Calgary comic expo.
A pile of crumpled siding and other metal pieces from one of the Plus 15 walkways in Calgary toppled by the wind overnight.
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Much of eastern Alberta was under a variety of weather warnings from Environment Canada, including a blowing snow advisory stretching from Athabasca to the southeast corner of the province.
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The national weather service warned that heavy snow in some areas, combined with gusty winds, could result in near-zero visibility and hazardous driving conditions.
In Edmonton, a blowing snow advisory was issued with close to 10 centimetres of snow in the forecast by Saturday morning and a forecast high of just -2 C to start the weekend.
In Calgary, up to four centimetres of snow was in the forecast, with the mercury only expected to hit -3 C on Saturday.
The normal daytime high for both cities at this time of year is 14 C.
“It’s not looking like the best weekend,” Global Calgary weather specialist Sarah Offin said. “The challenge is this system is really just staying put. It’s a slow-moving system and because of that, we’re going to see these effects of this storm lingering. There’s also, of course, an arctic wind that is involved with this system. So a cold weekend in store.”
In the areas hit hardest by the storm, south of Fort McMurray, Environment Canada has warned that up to 50 centimetres could fall, prompting warnings that non-essential travel should be avoided.
While the storm will make a mess of the weekend, the forecast is for a return to more seasonable temperatures for next week.
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The storm is forecast to be short-lived, with temperatures in both Calgary and Edmonton expected to rebound into the mid-teens by the middle of next week.
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The forecast high for both Calgary and Edmonton on Monday is around 5 C and will increase to the mid-teens by Thursday.
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Cranbrook gets 10 centimetres of snow
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