A cold snap to ring in the new year, and other weather predictions for 2025

After a mild last week of 2024 for southern Alberta, the new year is set to arrive alongside temperatures plunging into the negative high teens. 

According to Environment Canada, the colder weather is expected to hit on New Year's Day, and continue to the end of the week, getting to –18 C overnight on Friday, with some snow flurries expected. 

"Just enough snow to perhaps make the roads a little bit slippery," freelance climate journalist Kyle Brittain told CBC Radio's the Calgary Eyeopener on Monday.

And while Brittain predicts the cold snap will be short lived, with more temperate conditions returning the following week, he said he hopes the first few months of 2025 will bring more snow to the mountains, particularly. 

"This year, with La Nina expected, we were expecting much colder and snowier than average conditions, but that hasn't quite materialized just yet," said Brittain. 

"Our long range models right now still showing the trend into colder than average temperatures kind of returning toward late January and through February. Hopefully that also brings some more snow because the snowpack out in the Rocky Mountains right now is pretty low." 

The below average snowpack harkens back to similar conditions in early 2024, which triggered concern for drought across the province. 

Brittain said more moisture is needed during the last part of winter and into the spring of 2025 to replenish the snowpack and build up Alberta's water security for the summer months. 

Skiers wouldn't mind a dump either. 

"In the ski business, I don't know if there's such thing as too much snow," said Kendra Scurfield, VP of brand and communications at Sunshine Village. 

Scurfield said it hasn't been their heaviest season so far in terms of snow, but that the hill has seen consistent precipitation.

"The snow that we saw early in the season was really wet, dense, heavy — great base snow. So while it might not be as much as some of our banner snowfall years, the snow that we did get was very workable to get our mountain open." 

And the best could be yet to come, she added. 

"Traditionally our snowiest months of the year are actually March and April, and we are very much spoiled with a long ski and snowboard season. So conditions are really only getting better."

Predictions for 2025

Brittain said the weather outlook for the new year will likely follow the same trends observed in 2024.

While the province's drought conditions have improved compared to this time last year — due to a good dose of moisture in late summer and early fall — Brittain said water concerns could continue into 2025, especially if the rest of the winter remains dry. 

Otherwise, he said to expect more extreme weather events, not unlike the wildfire that razed 30 per cent of the town of Jasper on July 24, or the Calgary hail storm on Aug. 5, which turned out to be the costliest storm of the sort in Alberta history. 

"Highly impactful weather is not unusual for this province," said Brittain. 

"Certain kinds of extreme weather events, we're talking about heat waves that can contribute to droughts and wildfire danger … These are types of events that we would expect to become more frequent and extreme in a changing climate here in Western Canada."

Brittain said there's less of a climate change connection to something like hailstorms, but that ongoing population growth and urban expansion naturally create a larger target for these types of damaging events.