Warm-up on the way for Calgary this week

Could it be that Balzac Billy got it right this year?

This weekend, the city saw a huge dump of snow in all quadrants of the city, and temperatures about 10 C colder than usual for March.

But, this cold snap could finally be the finish line for this season’s bizarre winter weather.

It’s expected warm up as early as tomorrow, and Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Eric Van Lochem, says Calgarians could be out of the woods for good.

“Temperatures are definitely going to be on a warming trend for the next week to two weeks,” he explained. “They’ll probably rebound to something closer to average or above average for this time of year, so getting out of this cold snap we’ve seen.”

Calgary could possible see patio weather this weekend, as Saturday and Sunday’s highs are forecasted to be in the low to mid-teens.

“We’re talking temperatures maybe two, three degrees above normal for this time of year. So, not exceptionally mild but certainly milder than it has been, given how cold it’s been, it’ll feel pretty nice,” Van Lochem said. “Once we start warming up later this week — knock on wood — I wouldn’t be surprised if those are basically, that’s the last of the extreme cold.”

Some areas of the city say between 10 and 20 centimetres of snowfall this past weekend, with the southeast seeing the highest amount, city mobility spokesperson Chris McGechie says it’s now time to clean it up.

“Sidewalks are expected to be cleared by today,” he said. “So, just want to remind people that part of the bylaw is adjacent property owners are responsible for their parcel of sidewalk or adjacent pathways.”

He noted that property owners should try and shovel snow onto their lawns and not onto the roadways, if possible.

City crews are also continuing the work they’ve been doing all weekend, McGechie explains.

“We’re now working through our priority two routes, so those are your community and transit routes also known as our snow routes,” he said. “Typically, those are the routes that buses travel down.”

McGechie says by Monday evening, crews should be able to move on to clearing routes in residential areas.