CALGARY- Many of Calgary’s residential neighbourhoods are at a standstill today as the city copes with the aftermath of Friday’s massive snowfall.
Blowing snow and strong winds continue to sweep through Calgary, as Environment Canada extended its winter storm warning Saturday morning.
Dozens of drivers caught up in the big drifts abandoned their cars throughout the city overnight, Calgary police duty inspector Vic Trickett said.
Authorities are encouraging anyone who doesn’t need to travel to stay home, he said.
“I certainly wouldn’t recommend (driving), if people can stay off the roads, they should, no question.”
City crews have been working since 4 a.m. Friday to clear Calgary’s main thoroughfares, roads spokesman Sean Somers said.
As per city policy, crews are focusing on the main roads and won’t be clearing residential neighbourhoods, he said.
“We still have everybody out there that’s available,” said Somers.
Gusty winds are blowing the snow into massive drifts crews are struggling to clear, Somers added.
In Calgary, a deep chill is settling in as the mercury plunges.
The winter storm brought up to 20 centimetres of snow in parts of Alberta Friday and is still producing snow in the southeast part of the province this morning.
A brisk northerly wind is gusting as high as 80 kilometres an hour, according to Environment Canada. As the wind dies down this afternoon, the cold spell is expected to settle in.
“When you’re battling Mother Nature, it’s going to be a tough fight,” Somers said.
“We’ve had essentially non-stop snow for over 12 hours straight . . . the bottom line for us is, we’re doing the best we can.”
Lingering results of Friday's blast of snow forced the cancellation of the kick off to the Season of Wonder in downtown Calgary.
Stephen Avenue Walk was supposed to provide a variety of holiday activities including Christmas crafts, letter writing to Santa and toy testing on Saturday.
"Due to Mother Nature and the storm we didn't want people to bring their kids in this weather," said Caralyn Macdonald of the Downtown Calgary Association.
Ice sculptures demonstrations, carollers and other festivities will continue downtown next weekend.
The blustery weather that pummelled Calgary on Friday, turning the streets into a sloppy, slippery mess and shutting down several major highways throughout the day, is just the first salvo in a forecasted weeklong wintry walloping.
Blizzard-like conditions created havoc on Calgary streets for much of Friday, with authorities urging motorists to make only essential journeys.
Calgary police responded to at least 172 crashes, including 26 injury collisions by 4:30 p.m., and closed a number of roads throughout the day amid numerous fender-benders as driving conditions deteriorated.
Several highways, including Highway 2 north and south of the city, and the Trans-Canada Highway at Highway 22, were closed for several hours due to collisions or treacherous driving conditions.
A crash on a stretch of southbound Deerfoot Trail near Highway 22X involved about 50 cars, many strewn in the ditch. Most of the injuries were minor, police said.
High winds and a heavy snowfall blasted the city for most of the day.
Calgarians could see as much as 20 centimetres of snow before the storm blows through, said Environment Canada meteorologist Bill McMurtry. Areas west of the city could face 30 centimetres of the white stuff, he said.
"It's just whiteout conditions, the snow continues to fall, it's just miserable out there. It's the real deal winter storm."
The icy storm is entrenched over much of the province, from Peace River to south of Lethbridge, McMurtry said.
An active low-pressure system that developed in central Alberta collided with a massive high-pressure system from the Yukon, McMurtry said. The enormous system gripped nearly the entire province, he said.
Snow is expected to taper off later today, said McMurtry.
But the big snowfall will be swapped with a big chill, he added.
Temperatures are expected to plunge below-20 C by Sunday, with the deep freeze forecasted to last at least seven days.
"The temperature is going to fall continually for the next few days," McMurtry said.
"There's no indication that this cold air mass is going to move off-- it's such a large-scale system and it covers such a big portion of Western Canada . . . there's nothing in the foreseeable future that's going to push it off.
"There's no good news, whatsoever."
Drivers faced a messy drive home from work Friday, with strong winds and blowing snow severely limiting visibility in some areas.
City crews were out on the roads at full capacity, applying an anti-icing agent, salt chips and sand on major commuter routes and potential trouble spots to get roads in the best shape possible for the evening commute, said City of Calgary roads spokesman Sean Somers.
"There's so much snow falling, we just need to keep on it. We're literally doing laps around the commuter routes," he said.
"Everybody that we have is out there."
The Nov. 27 snowfall created numerous traffic snarls and left many drivers irate that more wasn't done to clear the roads. More than 500 collisions were reported in a 24-hour period.
Road crews were busy on city streets before Friday's storm arrived, spraying anti-icing agent on bridge decks and hills to try to avoid a similar situation.
Meanwhile, in central Alberta, several jackknifed tractor-trailers closed Highway 590 for more than an hour Friday. The rigs lost control on a bridge over the Red Deer River about 12 kilometres west of the hamlet of Big Valley. Highway 590 is the community's main connection to Highway 2, Innisfail and Three Hills.
In Calgary, workers at city shelters were readying beds to make sure no one was turned away into the frigid night.
The Mustard Seed's shelter hasn't reached capacity during recent bouts of bad weather, spokeswoman Courtney Fliss said. She attributed the situation partly to the number of clients who have since moved into affordable housing, which has eased some of the pressure on the system.
As the weather worsens, shelter officials are prepared for more people seeking a warm place to spend the night, Fliss added.
Meanwhile, several flights were cancelled due to weather at the Calgary airport, but the majority of planes were still taking off and arriving in the city Friday. Many flights were also delayed as the storm raged in Calgary.
"There's been some cancellations. We're still operating, though," said duty manager Ken Fessler.
The real challenge will be for travellers to actually arrive at the airport, he said.
Driving conditions on major Calgary roadways heading to the airport grew increasingly slippery throughout the day and blowing snow reduced visibility.
"That'll be the big news, people getting to the airport. Our guys are keeping things cleared pretty well (on the runway), it's just going to be pretty rough getting here," Fessler said.
Travellers are advised to keep a close eye on their flight plans, because if the weather worsens, more flights could be cancelled, he said.
jkomarnicki@theherald.canwest.com
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