Clipper or chinook? How Alberta's most famous weather phenomena impact Canada

CBC Alberta and Saskatchewan have teamed up for a new pilot series on weather and climate change on the prairies. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga will bring her expert voice to the conversation to help explain weather phenomena and climate change and how it impacts everyday life.

If you feel like this winter has been a weather roller-coaster, you aren't alone. 

From mild and melting to snowstorms to -10 C and really windy, the fluctuations seem to come out of nowhere. But in fact, this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink sort of prairie weather is often the result of the dreaded Alberta Clipper. 

Sound ominous? Well, let's demystify the term.

The Alberta Clipper is another name for a storm. It's called that because of where it forms and how fast it moves.  

These low-pressure systems, or storms, develop on the east side of the Rocky Mountains and they speed along like a clipper ship on the ocean. (Hence the name.) As they sail across the prairies, these systems can affect weather in Ontario and the eastern United States.

Alberta Clippers typically develop in the winter and can bring wild, rapid swings in the weather. What you see depends on where that low is positioned relative to you. 

As the clipper develops in Alberta, we're in what is known as the warm sector and will often see balmy weather. 

But when that cold front passes, things start to change. 

The wind will pick up out of the north or northwest, ushering in a rapid change from mild weather to cold temperatures and aggressive wind chills. 

Because these storms move so fast, we'll often see all of these conditions within a day or less.

You may think that the worst part of a clipper is the snow, but these systems are usually on the drier side. The bigger problem is the wind.

They can cause white-out or blizzard conditions by whipping up any snow that fell while the clipper moved through, and drive extreme wind chills as temperatures plunge after the system has passed. 

A chinook and a clipper system are different but often connected.