![]() ![]() Alberta Clippers don’t always bring much snow, though. The system moves “leeward” (downwind, that is, to the East) from the mountains before getting swept up into the jet stream, which carries it screaming down over the unsuspecting Midwestern United States before dumping it out into the Atlantic Ocean.Ĭlipper systems usually bring bitter cold, with sharp temperature declines of as much as 30° F in a few hours’ time, and powerful winds of up to 45 miles per hour. How Do Clippers Form?Īlberta Clippers are caused by low-pressure systems that form when warm winds from the Pacific Ocean collide with the colder air over the Rocky Mountains. The storms take their name from sleek, agile merchant sailing vessels popular during the 19th Century designed for speed. Other names for the storms include simply Clippers, for short, Canadian Clippers, or sometimes Manitoba Mauler, Ontario Scary-os, or Saskatchewan Screamers. Alberta Clippers can actually originate from nearby Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or even the state of Montana, to the south.īecause of their speed-Alberta Clippers often swoop in with little warning-the storms take their name from clippers: sleek, agile merchant sailing vessels popular during the 19th Century designed for speed. Take, for instance, “Alberta Clipper,” a name coined to describe a fast-moving storm system that sweeps down across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes regions of the United States from-you guessed it-Alberta, Canada, or thereabouts, anyway. ![]() We talk about the weather so much, that we even have dozens of different names for types of snowstorms.įrom flurries to ground blizzards, lake effect snow to polar vortices, it seems North Americans never tire of finding new ways to describe the white stuff falling from above. Talking about the weather may be a timeworn cliché, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it as often as possible.
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