Foggy start to Tuesday with mixed precipitation expected throughout the day

Unsettled weather throughout Alberta on Tuesday. Jodi Hughes has a look at the five-day forecast from the Sky Watch Weather Centre.

It was a cooler start early Tuesday morning with below-freezing temperatures, mixed precipitation, and fog across central and southern Alberta.

Visibility was so limited at times that Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) issued a fog advisory for areas around Red Deer and near Medicine Hat, explaining, “Patches of dense fog are causing poor visibility. Fog will dissipate late this morning or early this afternoon.”

A low-pressure system moving from southern B.C. to central Alberta brought mixed precipitation overnight and will continue throughout the day.

Temperatures across the region are expected to sit around the freezing mark Tuesday so there is a risk of freezing rain in some areas.

Calgary will likely experience a transition of rain to snow with a slight risk of freezing rain, however warmer surface temperatures should prevent widespread glazing (the layer of ice that forms when supercooled water droplets freeze on contact on a surface that is at or below 0 C). Calgary is not expecting significant accumulations but the rate of precipitation will increase throughout the day.

Snow is more likely to fall north of the Trans-Canada Highway and south of Red Deer with four to six centimetres possible.

Areas to the west of Calgary, especially those in the higher elevations, might also see higher accumulations of snow over the next 24 hours.

Tuesday’s high in Calgary should reach 3 C, which is just above the average of 2 C.

Wednesday and Thursday are forecast to peak at 4 C but will likely feel much warmer than Tuesday since both days are expected to include more sunshine, and lack the north winds forecast for Tuesday.

The end of this week will be warm with highs in the double-digits in portions of southern Alberta, but widespread and persistently colder air will settle across most of the country by the middle of next week, resulting in at least a few days in Calgary where the temperature will make it above freezing.