The weather has been so mild in Calgary for the past 2 weeks that I had started to think that the spring is here to stay. On Friday when it was +13 degrees and fantastic sunshine, I noticed a winter storm warning on the local weather website. It was described as a quite a bad storm, so we decided to stay in and watch it from our living room while enjoying a cup of tea and the warmth of the fireplace. This turned out to be a good decision. When we woke up on Sunday the snowfall was quite dense already and we could see the wind whipping snow around. After a while the snow had become so dense that it was hard to see the buildings across the street in a daylight. We heard the snowtrucks moving around – they beep-beep when they back up.

Snowstorm on Sunday March 3rd

In the evening we decided to order pizza. We were told that it might take 45 min to an hour before we get it, but since we had ordered a good time ahead, we did not worry. But the 45 min to an hour turned into 2 hours. The owner came to deliver the pizza himself since two of his delivery cars had been in an accident. Apparently it was a lot worse out there than we saw from our window.

We got about 20cm of snow in Calgary, but there were places outside that had double that amount. I overheard two women talking in the gym, how one of them had decided not to drive home from somewhere between Regina and Calgary on Sunday night, since the car started skidding. They found out later that lots of people were spending most of their Sunday night on the road in snow shelters waiting for the snow to be cleared so that they can move on again.

Today the snow is still on the ground in spite of the efforts of the shining sun. It is -8 out there, but the windchill makes it feel colder. But I heard on the radio that by Friday we might have +16. Love the variety of weather here!