It went from sunburns to snow shovels in Calgary this May long weekend. A snowfall warning was issued for several areas – Olds, Cochrane, Sundre, Banff, Kananaskis and Canmore.
The low pressure system over eastern Alberta has spread precipitation through much of the province.
Parts of Calgary also saw a rain and snow mix Sunday morning, including Edgemont, Tuscany, Citadel, the airport, along Memorial Drive and areas south of the city.
Environment Canada is warning that the heavy wet snow could cause tree branches to break, also rapidly accumulating snow could make travel difficult to some locations and visibility might be reduced.
READ MORE: Rainfall, snowfall warnings in place for areas of central, southern Alberta
Despite the moisture, fire bans and restrictions remain in place across most of the province. For up to date details on where, visit Alberta Fire Bans website.
Global Calgary weather anchor Gemma Lynne says the earlier snow should be rain by Sunday afternoon, but Calgary will see heavier rain again overnight, then light rain Monday with a high of 8 degrees celcius, that’s 10 degrees celsius below seasonal. Tuesday will be an improvement, but it will still be below seasonal.
There last remaining campers at the Bottrel Campground north of Cochrane didn’t think they’d wake up to snow.
“We were told it would snow last night and we kind of laughed, we were like no it won’t. We were wrong, very wrong,” Evan Williams, a Calgary camper said.
He and his friends woke up to a collapsed tarp and heavy snow weighing down their humble dwelling.
“It was kind of a funny situation. The tarp was covering us and we had to dig our way out of the tent. What do you do? Laugh, it is what it is,” Williamsa said.
But on the upside, the firewood stayed dry and a few centimeters of snow didn’t send them packing.
“So what’s the plan now? Start a fire, going to keep going. The weekend is not over yet,” Williams said.
On a normal long weekend, the bottrel campground would be nearly full. As of Sunday, it was easy to get a spot.
“I have been around for 66 of them and pretty much three quarters of them have been just like this. Either wet or snow,” Duane Needham, owner of at the Bottrel General Store said.
Slushy highways made driving tricky to the north and west of Calgary, several vehicles wound up in the ditch on Big Hill Springs Road north of Calgary.
The power went out briefly Sunday morning for about 2,100 ENMAX customers in the north west part of the city, when snow pushed a tree onto to a powerline in Brentwood.
In tweets: Here’s how Calgarians and surrounding areas reacted to the snow surprise;
https://twitter.com/gemma_lynne/status/734390148591280128
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