United States

Nasty Cold follows the Snow in the West

December 02, 2013; 8:46 PM

Difficult travel conditions across parts of BC, Alberta and western Saskatchewan since last night as the Arctic front came in with the snow and wind. Numerous accidents reported across the region. I expect the worst of these conditions will be concentrated over southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan into tonight. Farther north and west it will be downright cold with some blowing snow.

Nice image from the Alberta Highway department webcam from earlier this afternoon showing some breaks in the clouds behind the retreating snowstorm in the Lake Louise area.

The core of this initial Arctic blast will be centered of western Canada Tuesday night and the graphic below shows just how cold it will feel when you factor in the wind.

The reason it shows the coldest range over North Dakota is the fact that there will be more wind down in that region Tuesday night compared to areas farther north.

Note: The graphic that I had posted earlier Monday was incorrect. Thank you to my readers for pointing it out. I should have seen that, but I somehow missed it and apologize. It showed the wrong temperature departures. We generally expect the lowest departures to be from 19 to 22 C. below normal Wed/Thu in the Prairies and northern U.S.

There will likely be some flurries from the Vancouver to Victoria, BC area this evening, but it will be brief as the air quickly dries out with the Arctic intrusion.

A wave of low pressure will move up into the Upper U.S. Midwest along the Arctic front on Tuesday, putting southern Manitoba, including Winnipeg on the northern edge of steady snow Tuesday and Tuesday night. Not a big storm, but could easily see 5-10 cm with blowing and drifting. There will be additional light snow and plenty of wind and cold across this area through much of the week.

I will post the snow totals for this current storm when they become available.

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Wind and rain storm for the Maritimes Tue/Wed

A rapidly, intensifying coastal storm will take aim at the Maritimes Tuesday afternoon into the first half of Wednesday.

The center of this storm will likely track right up across Cape Breton, NS early Wednesday. Just not enough cold air in place north and west of the storm track, thus this will be mostly a rainmaker, though there will likely be a brief change to wet snow early Wednesday over southeast New Brunswick and northwest Nova Scotia.

Rainfall will be heavy, especially over Nova Scotia and PEI Tuesday evening. Storm totals could exceed 50 mm in some areas.

Winds will be strongest from the west and northwest direction on the backside of this storm with possible gusts in excess of 85 kmh over PEI and northeast Nova Scotia.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com