Prairies, northern Ontario brrr-ace for Alberta clipper and more snow

Alberta clippers are fast-moving, low-pressure systems that originate in Alberta, just east of the Rocky Mountains, tracks east- to southeastward across southern Canada and the northern United States.

Impacted areas of the Prairies —northeastern B.C.’s Peace region, a swath of Alberta north of Edmonton, in and around Prince Albert, Sask., and the Winnipeg area — are subject to yellow level snowfall warning alerts.

Environment Canada also issued special weather statements for Regina, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon stemming from the storm.

The system originated in west-central Alberta and is now bringing heavy snow across the Prairies.

It will end shy of Thunder Bay, Ont., a meteorologist with the federal weather monitor explained.

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Heavy snow, mixed precipitation, and thunderstorms are in the forecast.

Northern Alberta is expecting around 15 centimetres, according to Environment Canada.

Central Saskatchewan and Manitoba should see a maximum of 20 centimetres of snow, and the Parklands region of western Manitoba is expecting 15-30 centimetres.

“Any of the snow-free areas will be covered tonight,” said Danielle Desjardins, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“It’s going to look much more wintery than we would expect – given that it’s already April.”

This snow will taper from west to east, and in areas where only a special weather statement was issued without a snowfall alert, high temperatures will melt the snow as it falls. This precipitation is expected to come down as rain.

“As the system tracks to the east, it’s going to drag in some much colder air and temperatures will decrease to below zero. So that rain’s going to switch over to snow tonight,” explained Desjardins.

The Prairies can expect more wintery weather to follow, Desjardins said.

“This time of year, we do tend to see these types of systems track through because they can tap into a lot more energy and moisture with the warm temperatures to the south and the arctic air still remaining to the north,” she added.

“It’s still going to be a bit of a rollercoaster for the next week or so.”

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