Chilly, snowy Christmas coming to Alberta, rest of Western Canada

Frigid temperatures across much of Western Canada include advisories from Environment Canada warning parts of Alberta to prepare for a snowy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Holiday travel will be impacted, the national weather agency said.

As much as 10 to 20 cm is expected to fall by Christmas morning in central Alberta, including in and around Edmonton, and Environment Canada is asking drivers to consider adjusting travel plans to take into account road conditions.

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Environment Canada said on Wednesday, a northbound band of heavy snow will form over southern Alberta in the morning and dump heavy snow as it travels up the province.

The highest amounts of snow are expected over the Yellowhead Highway corridor connecting Jasper, Edmonton and Lloydminster.

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Snowfall warnings were in place for multiple highways in British Columbia, with the advisory saying a frontal system approaching from Washington state will bring snow to southwestern B.C., intensifying later in the day on Christmas Eve.

It says there could be accumulations of up to 10 cm for the Fraser Canyon, and 10 to 15 cm along stretches of the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Kamloops.

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The snow advisories join cold warnings up for parts of Manitoba, as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan — where predictions are for wind chills in some spots between -45 and -50 C.

A few more temperature records fell in the Yukon, where it was -52.2 in Faro, breaking an old record of -43.5 set on the Dec. 23, 2022.

The extreme cold in the Yukon is expected to last through Christmas Eve, with wind chills in some spots hitting -45 to -55 C.

Derek Lee, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Tuesday that Arctic air has been building over the Yukon for the last week and a half.

“But that’s soon to change. We are looking to see some systems roll through Yukon in the next coming days and with that we’ll bring some moisture and cloud cover which will in turn help keep the temperatures a little bit higher than what we’re seeing now.”

Lee said cloud cover is in the forecast to sweep over the territory from north to south to help keep in some warmer air, but the cold in general isn’t going anywhere.

“Basically getting out of the negative 50s and maybe into the negative 35 to negative 40 range by the time we get in to the weekend.”

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With files from Karen Bartko, Global News