Blair's Blog

Crazy weather today in the Calgary area! The forecast this morning was for snow flurries turning to rain then clearing in the afternoon. But that’s not what happened at all. Out our way it was light flurries at 8:00 am when I left the house to take the boys to school. By the time we hit the city limits (10 km), we were driving 5 km/hr in heavy wet snowfall with maybe 1/2 km visibility. We took a few backroads and nearly got smacked from behind as we waited for a break in traffic while stopped at a stop sign. I looked in my mirror and was a little surprised to see a blue station wagon sliding sideways towards the back of the truck. Fortunately the car slid into the ditch rather than into me! The driver was OK but that car wasn’t going anywhere for a while.

We eventually got to school about 9:00 am – it’s usually a 20 minute drive. We trudged through about 15 cm of snow and I signed the kids in. By the time I got to work it was about 9:15 and most of the office was similarly late. Some just abandoned the attempt and stayed home. By the time it stopped we’d had more than 25 cm of snow at my work. By the end of the work day the snow was melting fast, the main streets were mostly bare and many were dry! Crazy day.

The snow was just perfect for snowmen and snowballs, so before we made supper we all were out playing. We rolled up a bunch of giant snowballs into a snow fort alongside the road and made a couple of snowmen. The kids had a blast and I didn’t even get a hernia from the exertion of rolling a 300 lb snowball along.

Here is what Environment Canada had to say about the day:

AWCN15 CWWG 102033 Corrected summary weather statement issued by Environment Canada at 2:33 PM MDT Thursday 10 April 2008.

Summary of severe weather events and forecasts from 8.00 AM MDT Wednesday to 8.00 AM MDT Thursday.

An intense snowstorm developed over the Calgary area this Morning. Radar shows that the heaviest snow fell over northeastern Calgary and Chestermere. The Calgary international airport received A record snowfall for April 10th with 23 cm of snow. The previous daily record was 15.2 cm in 1920. A few unofficial snowfall amounts:

Calgary intl.........23 cm Chestermere.......20-23 cm Calgary downtown.....20 cm Airdrie..............15 cm Irricana............. 6 cm Springbank........... 1 cm Crossfield........... 1 cm

END/CMW/BN

Here are a few pictures: