PHOTOS: Potent fall storm blasts the Prairies with nearly 100 cm of snow
All-time September snowfall records have been broken.
What fall? Parts of the Prairies appear to have skipped a season all together, jumping straight into the heart of winter with new September snowfall records broken over the weekend.
Descending cold air from the arctic combined with a potent and slow moving low pressure system brought days of heavy snow and dangerous blizzard-like conditions to southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Snowfall and winter storm warnings were issued across both regions, including the City of Calgary, which set a new all-time September daily snowfall record on Sunday, beating out the previous record of 22.9 cm set back on September 19, 1985.
But the big show was further south and west, near the mountains and foothills, where Waterton Lakes National Park measured an astonishing 95 cm -- just 5 cm shy of a metre -- after more than two days of snowfall. Chain Lakes made it up to 80 cm and the city of Lethbridge was unfortunate enough to be on the wrong side of the knife's edge, with up to 60 cm recorded.
Treacherous travel, flight cancellations, power outages and tree damage were all reported in what will be remembered as an historic early autumn storm.
This has definitely been a "you have to see it to believe it" snow story for the record books.
