first major winter storm of the year on the prairies

i know, quite a few weeks ago i was sitting on eze's balcony, sipping a glass of wine, revelling in the 25 degree temperatures at 10 pm, while watching a football game in calgary where it was snowing. but that storm was fairly minot, in the grand scheme of things.

this one, however, is not. there's a digging upper trough in the gulf of alaska, a northeasterly surface flow over alberta, and a moisture-tapping stream all the way back to hawaii. this one is going to be pretty big.

as i type this, whitecourt (about 150 km northwest of edmonton) has already had 23 cm of snow. the moisture feed's evolution looks like it'll drop southward and thus calgary could be in the soup. or slush, as it were. their current temperature is -4 and they have a north wind. the chinook is forecast to kick in, giving them a high today of +15. then the cold front is forecast to smoke them, dropping them to a snowy -7, not to rise again tomorrow.

here in winnipeg we could be looking at a few cm of snow starting late tomorrow morning and ending in the evening, but nothing dramatic like they're poised to get in alberta.

but don't worry. we'll get our big winter storm sometime sooner rather than later.