The last few days have been more spring like than winter like but it looks like the nice weather will be short lived as we are expecting to be walloped with a big storm in the next few days.
Environment Canada has issued a Yellow Warning – Winter Storm just to the east of the Drumheller region, in the Hanna – Oyen area. Stingray Weather Specialist Brandon Houck notes that the Drumheller area will still see a good blast of winter. “The areas, especially through Drumheller, are going to be right on the edge of the worst of the significant amount of precipitation. North and east of Drumheller, are probably going to see 10 to 20 centimeters of snow. For Drumheller itself, I’m probably going to go in the ballpark of 5 to 10 centimeters of snow and the winds are going to gust 50 to 60 kilometers per hour. As you move east, you are going to see winds gusting closer to 70 and 80 kilometers per hour. That could lead to blizzard conditions, especially in the Hanna and Oyen areas tomorrow.”
Even though Drumheller will be on the edge of the significant weather, Houck believes driving conditions could be troublesome on Wednesday. “I do believe we will probably see some treacherous driving conditions in the Drumheller, even if we only get between 5 to 10 centimeters of snow. Plus, we go from temperatures above freezing, falling to -14 in the afternoon.”
Houck suspects this will be a quick system and should move through the area quickly. “This system is going to be very quick moving, kind of like the ‘clipper’ system we had (Monday) evening. This system will probably mid morning and early afternoon, wrapping up later in the day Wednesday.”
Then we are in for a dip in temperatures as we head to the weekend. “We have a pool of arctic air moving by the end of the week. We will bump the temperature up on Thursday, near the freezing mark, then the next clipper system will move in. This one won’t have as much precipitation with it but it is going to draw in the arctic air mass out of the Yukon, dropping the temperatures down Friday into Saturday.” Houck sees a sign of recovery by the end of the weekend.
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