I’m tempted to move to Calgary, watch a few YouTube videos, and cut hair for a living. I’ll call my business “The Alberta Clipper.” Bad idea?
The term “Alberta clipper” was coined in the late 1960s by a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Milwaukee. Named after speedy clipper ships of the mid-1800s, these low-pressure systems originating in or near the Canadian province of Alberta can zip along at 40-50 mph: cyclonic swirls of rapidly rising air with a light cargo of snow, but strong winds capable of ground blizzards. They are also notoriously fickle, putting down a very narrow carpet of white.
One such weather annoyance arrives Friday with a quick inch. Another, stronger Alberta clipper may drop plowable amounts of powder Saturday, especially southwest of the Twin Cities. These clippers will slowly add to our snow amounts in dribs and drabs and with highs mostly in the teens and 20s.
We’re waking up to the earliest subzero low since 2014. Harbinger of a real winter? Yep.
