It’s as regular as the time change, March brings with it a substantial amount of snow each year.  

Not to disappoint, snow is expected for southern Alberta, including Cochrane, tomorrow.  Environment Canada meteorologist, Kyle Fougere says, “I think a lot of people are typically surprised that March is the snowiest month in the Calgary, Cochrane area, and the second snowiest month is April. We start meteorological spring on March 1st and so even though we are in the spring months and normally the coldest air is now behind us, we're into the snowy months.” 

Fougere says March and April also have a lot of storms to go with the snow. “It's a stormy time of year where we have a lot of these low-pressure systems that form and move across the province and can spread snow, which is what we're expecting for this weekend.”  

Yes, starting tomorrow (Friday, March 10) Fougere says, “We have a low-pressure system that's going to form in Montana and move across southern Alberta. In the Calgary Cochrane area, it's likely that we'll see between 5 and 10 centimeters between Friday and Saturday, but as you head farther east to the border, we could be seeing closer to 15 or 20 centimeters near the Saskatchewan border.”  

On average, March sees 23 centimetres of snow. Just nine days into the month, 10 cm of snow has already been recorded. Add on the 5 to 10 cm that is expected this weekend and the possibility of another system forecast for Tuesday it could prove to be an exceptionally snowy, stormy March. Fougere says, “So far, you know, only a third of the month in, and we've had almost half of our precipitation that we would expect. It is likely that we are going to end up with a snowier-than-normal March.  

The best advice, since we can record snow even in June in this part of the country, is don’t put away the snow shovel until at least then.