Snowfall and rising fuel prices not stopping Albertans this May long weekend

Despite the May long weekend snow and rising fuel prices, Albertans are still heading outdoors and continuing with their travel plans.

Jesse Skwaruk is putting a tarp over his campsite ahead of the precipitation moving into the area.

“We’re from the province here, we understand the risk associated with camping on May long, and we are well-prepared; we have our warm clothes with us,” he told CityNews on Friday.

While his family has an RV, the same can’t be said for Kelly Weldon.

“This is our little home away from home,” he said while preparing his tent.

He is camping with his sister, and they will be sleeping in a tent, but they’re not worried at all.

“You just suck it up,” Weldon said. “You know what, just keep shelter, make sure you have a nice warm fire, put the tarp up and eat lots of soup.”

A special weather statement from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says snow will continue Saturday and taper off late into the day; however, it is expected to continue into Sunday in the Crowsnest area.

The notice says motorists should prepare for rapidly changing and deteriorating road conditions and reduced visibility in heavy snow.

While snowfall during this time of year is not unusual for Alberta, the ECCC is calling this weekend’s event significant, especially for areas west of Calgary, which is under a snowfall warning and could see 10 or more centimetres of snow.

“We’ll probably sort of see 10 to 15 (cm) over the Foothills and maybe up to 20 (cm) in the Banff area. Calgary itself, you’ll probably see 5-10 mm of rain before it switches over to snow,” said ECCC meteorologist Brian Proctor.

And snow is not the only potential headwind travellers will have to deal with this long weekend, with gas prices still elevated due to the war in Iran.

But that’s not stopping Canadians, with over 90 per cent of them in a survey from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) saying they are planning at least one trip within the country.

That persistence could help our economy, with BDC chief economist Pierre Cléroux saying that if every Canadian replaced one night of international travel with domestic, that could add $4.6 billion to the country’s GDP.

“Sometimes they look for more affordable accommodations, they do a smaller trip, or they travel offseason, but they are still keen for travelling,” he explained.

Something more families could be doing this year, as fuel costs remain high.

“Sometimes we go a little further into Kananaskis, but other times we go into B.C. camping later on in the summer,” Skwaruk said. “However, we are sticking a little closer to home these days.”