Brrrr: Communities west of Edmonton on edge of Rockies hit with first snow

Winter is coming.

Communities along the edge of the Alberta Rockies were walloped with the first snowfall of the season Wednesday.

The sight of snow may serve as a shock to some Albertans, but the frigid weather should be expected this time of year, said Environment Canada meteorologist Natalie Hasell.

“The fact that we’ve already had a load of snow mid-September is actually not unusual,” Hasell said.

“It may seem surprising, given the conditions that you’ve just experienced where we had very hot weather, but looking at the climatology, this is not all that unusual.”

After periods of drizzling rain, snow began falling over sections of the Icefields Parkway mid-morning.

Between five and 10 millimetres of precipitation is expected to fall in Jasper throughout the day, according to the latest forecast from Environment Canada.

The Hinton area has also been buried in a small dump of wet snow. Photographs posted to social media suggest that area highways were slick.

Whats that on the side of the road Highway 40 near Hinton yes that is SNOW #abstorm #abroads pic.twitter.com/hlyN9dOEBe

— Brandon Houck (@HouckisPokise) September 13, 2017

Though it likely won’t take long for Wednesday’s snowfall to melt, the long-term forecast looks decidedly chilly.

By the end of the week, many communities in Alberta can expect to see highs around 10 degrees or cooler, while higher elevations could see more than 10 centimetres of snow.

“It doesn’t look a very large amount of snow but certainly enough that road conditions could be difficult, especially if people haven’t put on their snow tires yet,” Hasell said. “We are looking at some freeze-thaw conditions in the next couple of days.

Read more at CBC News