Welcome to day 2 of springtime in Alberta.

by Janelle Pietruszka
(Leduc, AB Canada)

It's springtime? Who says that? 🤣 You thought you were done with the white stuff, but Alberta weather played a cruel joke on you. Find out why your backyard is colder than the airport with the sneaky science behind that 30-centimeter snowfall.

What happened, Janelle? 1 week ago I was counting blades of grass on my front yard, now I'm counting feet of snow. Ugh!

We were suppose to get 5-10 cm of snow but were over 30 cms. It began @ 4:20 a.m March 20th & finally ended @ :10 p.m today, March 21st.

Barry's Response - The Edmonton International Airport, CYEG, is about 3 kilometres northwest of downtown Leduc. It reported 13 cm of fresh snow over that two-day period.

As with most precipitation in Alberta, mesoscale effects (those which lead to changes in weather over the course of a km or two) rule. 13 cm here can easily correspond with 30 cm over there.

You might even see enough to give animals and people a hard time moving about, such as the example in the drawing above.

It's quite possible that some patches of ground in the area received none during that event, though it's not extremely likely. Welcome to the prairies.

Other years have seen the same thing occur there over the same time frame, except the region did not already have a foot on the ground at the time.

The Prairie-Go-Round of Emotional Whiplash

Feeling that delicious, hopeful warmth of the sun-that promise of spring-you counted blades of grass. And then, BAM! There's 30 centimeters of snow. What an audacity! You, my fellow pioneer, feel cheated, and you've got every right to stomp your boots. The Canadian Prairies know this isn't just bad weather; it's a deeply emotional betrayal. Just when you got new sandals, Nature pulled the rug out.

Sneaky Snow Science: Mesoscale Shenanigans

Why did the airport report 13 cm while your backyard looked like a snow wallpaper gallery? The atmosphere doesn't play fair on the Prairies.

Like I said, meteorologists call them mesoscale effects. You get atmospheric ninjas instead of one giant weather system throwing a smooth, uniform blanket of snow (the synoptic scale).

• Mountains don't just look pretty; they shape our air. We can get that "day 1 of spring" feeling with a Chinook arch. Once that low-pressure system moves in, the Rockies force the air to lift and cool, wringing out moisture, creating intense, hyper-localized snow bands that hit one neighbourhood but not the next.
• In the Prairies, the main snowmaker is a powerful Colorado Low, which drags warm, moist air north. It's huge. Occasionally, we get a quick-draw Alberta Clipper - a smaller, faster system. Extreme mesoscale gradients are caused by the intense localized forcing from these quick-moving systems. There's a subtle gap between the snow bands; the airport is 3 kilometers away. Just like those old snowstorm photos, it piles up in drifts, leaving patches nearly bare.

Debating the blame for weather data

Here's the elephant in the room: Is this blizzard all about climate change?

Inventors demand data, not dogma. Even though the planet's average temperature rises, this sudden change in weather - that whipsaw from bare grass to deep snow - is also deeply rooted in natural, massive oceanic cycles. Let's allow a bit of thought backed by evidence!

• The Sassy Counter-Narrative: Natural fluctuations like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) dictate the jet stream's path. The PDO sometimes locks us into a pattern that allows late-season, moisture-heavy lows to track right into Alberta.
• Planet's own erratic rhythm, a force to be reckoned with. The Earth is a complex, temperamental system, not an either/or argument. While acknowledging creation, we need to manage our footprint.

The snow -- like the aquatic environment where the meltwater eventually goes -- is a reminder to be careful and not panic.

UMSA Network: A Revolutionary Idea

We need to revolutionize our approach to catch these mesoscale snow ninjas. Here's a wacky proposal for Urban Micro-Sensor Arrays (UMSA):

Don't rely on distant airports! It's time to weaponize civic data! Sensors on traffic lights, municipal building roofs, and even road-surface temperature gauges for winter road maintenance could provide real-time temperature and moisture readings. By mapping those sneaky, elusive snow bands, a smart algorithm would provide warnings far more granular than "snow is possible." It's a solid principle applied to weather safety: transforming mundane infrastructure into a cutting-edge weather warning system through collaboration and teamwork.

Here's the final dig

The snow that makes those ski chateaus and winter photos look so majestic also creates work, forces us to wear warm clothes, and occasionally traps horses (caption: Not today, Satan, not today). We gain endurance through that struggle. Spring time in Alberta isn't just a sarcastic title; it's a testament to the fact that we live in one of the most dynamic, frustrating, and resilient landscapes on the planet.

Have your backyard snow totals ever beaten the airport's? Comment below with your most ridiculous "spring" snow story!