WINTER STORM WARNING: City of Edmonton - St. Albert - Sherwood Park Issued at 4:26 AM MST FRIDAY 4 DECEMBER 2009
AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP SOUTHEASTWARD ACROSS NORTHERN ALBERTA THIS MORNING BRINGING SNOW BLOWING SNOW AND STRONG WINDS. THIS IS A WARNING THAT DANGEROUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS...LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.
AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP RAPIDLY SOUTHEASTWARD ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL ALBERTA TODAY. THIS FRONT WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY SNOW, STRONG WINDS AND BLOWING SNOW. SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 10 TO 20 CENTIMETRES CAN BE EXPECTED IN MANY REGIONS BY FRIDAY EVENING. THE FRONT WILL ALSO BE ACCOMPANIED BY STRONG NORTH TO NORTHWEST WINDS RESULTING IN WIDESPREAD BLOWING SNOW AND NEAR ZERO VISIBILITIES. THESE REDUCED VISIBILITIES WILL BE MOST PRONOUNCED IN EXPOSED AND RURAL AREAS. THE WINDS WILL SLOWLY BEGIN TO EASE EARLY SATURDAY MORNING. IN THE WAKE OF THIS COLD FRONT MUCH COOLER AIR WILL SETTLE OVER THE PROVINCE ON SATURDAY. THIS WINTER STORM CAN PRODUCE POOR TRAVELLING CONDITIONS. PERSONS IN OR NEAR THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR UPDATED WARNINGS.
By the time I left the house to drop my daughter off at daycare, at least a couple of cm's of snow had already accumulated and much more was falling. It was honestly quite beautiful - fluffy white snow falling peacefully to the earth through the dark early morning sky. But I knew traffic would be insane, there would be a whole lot of accidents today, and once the wind kicked in and visibility dropped to zero, all hell would break loose.
So I let my bike (and my poor thighs) rest today, and I drove. Unlike other times I've driven in, it felt soooo goooood to do it today. I arrived at work feeling fresh and happy, smiling, holding a fresh latte in hand. And whatever cyclists I saw today, unlike the other times I've driven in and felt jealous of the cyclists I passed, today I felt nothing but gratitude that I wasn't them!
I only saw one cyclist this morning, and it was on campus. The automatic thought that popped into my head as I saw him plow through the snow ahead of me was, "That poor guy . . . err, that poor, crazy guy!" As an aside, I can tell how bad the weather is based on how long it takes into my ride for me to spot a cyclist: in the summer, I see them earlier on in the ride because they're starting from as far west as, or farther than, me, and as the bad weather progresses I only see them starting downtown (about 2/3 into my ride), or only on the High Level Bridge (about 3/4 into the ride), and today it was only on campus! Since the wintry weather hit last week, I have only rarely seen cyclists in the downtown-ish area - it has almost exclusively been on the Bridge and on campus. For some reason, this makes me feel good - as though I'm the only one willing to brave the wintry weather for a ride all the way from the west end! Perhaps that's not the case at all, but I'll take whatever victories (real or imagined!) I can get.
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