You may have heard meteorologists refer to an "Alberta clipper" causing snow in the Midwest or Northeast, but what does that mean? AccuWeather's Bree Guy explains.
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00:00What is an Alberta Clipper?
00:01We've been talking about it a lot.
00:04We're currently watching one now.
00:06What does it mean?
00:07Well, this is the general
00:09path of an Alberta Clipper.
00:10It really rides this Southeasterly
00:12flow of the jet and generally
00:14produces snow anywhere across
00:16the Northern Rockies and Northern
00:18Plains all the way across the
00:20Great Lakes in it to the Northeast,
00:22bringing that cold air with it.
00:24But you know it meets up often with
00:27this milder air out ahead of you.
00:29It still that helps fuel some of these
00:32snow storms characteristically of
00:34these Alberta Clippers now I love
00:36to dive deeper into these sneaky
00:38little storms where they originate.
00:40We have to look at their origins right
00:43to see why they do what they do.
00:46This storm moving fast because
00:48it's coming from central Canada.
00:50Typically an Alberta Clipper does
00:52come across the province Alberta
00:54or originates there and it's
00:56coming from the North.
00:58Alberta or originates there,
00:59but it's fast moving because it doesn't
01:01have a lot of moisture to help fuel it.
01:04So it's going and it's trying to
01:06drive as much energy across this
01:08zone as possible and get as far as it can.
01:11That's a big factor when it comes
01:13to Alberta Clippers and why they
01:15don't generally produce high,
01:17high amounts of snow,
01:18though in some cases,
01:19especially when we talk about
01:21Lake Enhanced Snow from Alberta
01:22Clippers like we're seeing even now,
01:24we could see isolated areas where
01:26we could see isolated areas with more snow.
01:29They are fast moving.
01:30They typically originate from
01:31the Canadian province, Alberta.
01:33They are most common in late fall
01:35in winter as it is very dry in that area.
01:38They often produce gusty winds,
01:40and in this case,
01:42if an Alberta Clipper or the energy
01:44from it slides into the shore,
01:47it could of course also move north.
01:56For more information visit www.fema.gov