A blast of winter is expected to bring snow and cold temperatures over the next few days.
Snow fall warnings were issued for Red Deer, Rocky Mountain House, Caroline, Nordegg and Stettler on Friday afternoon.
Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor said Central Albertans would face the bulk of the snowfall overnight Friday, as a southern arctic front moved into the region from Edmonton.
“It’s going to develop some significant snow over the Central Alberta area, especially along the Rocky Mountain House/Red Deer area, over the next 24 hours,” he said. “It’s not going to be a great sort of night for many portions of the area but there will be an improvement through the day tomorrow.”
Red Deer is expected to receive 10 to 15 c m of snow overnight.
Proctor said two to four cm more will fall earlySaturday but the snow is expected to end by early in theafternoon.
Central Albertans can also expect seasonal winter temperatures for the next few days. The temperatures were to plunge to -15C overnight on Friday, -14C Saturday and -22C on Sunday.
“It won’t be until the end of the work week that we start to see rebounding temperature wise towards the zero points,” said Proctor. “People are going to see normal temperatures over the next five to six days. ... We have been a little spoiled over the last little while.”
Proctor said the warmer than usual winter temperatures may return Thursday or Friday of next week.
crhyno@www.reddeeradvocate.com