Cochranites woke up to a layer of thick, wet snow Tuesday morning and it looks like more is on its way.

“We are going to see a second and third round of precipitation circle back up and around the province later today and especially tomorrow,” says Justin Shelley, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. “We're not expecting too much more in terms of precipitation amounts for the Cochrane area necessarily today, but by tonight and into tomorrow we're going to start to see an additional area of precipitation wrap around this low-pressure system.”

“That's going to provide some higher precipitation and snowfall amounts for the area. Right now it looks like between tonight and Wednesday evening, there could be anywhere from 5 to 15 centimetres of additional snowfall on the ground.”

“The system is quite dynamic and we'll see quite similar to last night, some highly variable snowfall amounts across the region. So you want to keep up to date with the latest forecasts and alerts. They are updated throughout the day.”

While the snow may have been an unwelcome kick-off to May, Shelley says it’s not out of the ordinary. 

“It is what I would call, pretty typical spring Alberta weather. If you take a look at the climate normals for the Calgary area for instance, they actually see slightly more snowfall during the spring months than they do the winter months.” 

After a snowy 72 hours, he says Cochranites are in for a treat as the warm spring temperatures will return in time for the weekend.

weatherA snapshot of Cochrane's upcoming forecast. (Photo/Environment and Climate Change Canada.)

“We're going to see the bulk of this precipitation end by Thursday morning and by the time we get to Friday, we're going to see the rebuilding of that upper ridge that's going to clear things out for the most part and keep things relatively dry."

“Possibly the mid to high teens by the end of the weekend.”