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Meanwhile, Calgary crews have been busymaintaining roadsin preparation for the 5 cm of snow and the freezing drizzle coming to the city.

Crews worked overnight putting down salt on major commuter routes ahead of the Thursday morning commute and also kept busy maintaining trouble spots such as hills, ramps and bridge decks.

They will continue to work on those Priority 1 routes, laying down a substance called “pickle” consisting of salt and gravel, to keep roads from icing up as the temperatures start to drop. When the snow stops, crews will move onto Priority 2 routes, including feeder roads.

At this time, the city does not plan on calling a snow route parking ban.

The bad

McMurtry warned that it could be a painfully chilly wait for Calgarians who plan on lining up outside stores to take advantage of Black Friday deals.

“You’ll really have to want that item if you want to line up tonight and tomorrow,” McMurtry said Thursday. “Not only are we dealing with temperatures falling throughout the day, but we’re dealing with a pretty brisk wind, and we’re looking at some very cold wind chills into the –30s for tomorrow (Friday). That’s going to be extremely brisk.”

And there is such a thing as too much snow, even in the skiing world.

Photo by Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press

A training run for the season opening World Cup downhill in Lake Louise was cancelled because of too much snow. The first race of the season is scheduled for Saturday at the ski resort, with a super-G to follow on Sunday. Another training run is scheduled for Friday.

The ugly

With every winter weather system comes collisions and havoc on roads and highways.

In Calgary, the crash tally is “not too bad,” but 65 crashes were reported to police from midnight to 11:45 a.m. Thursday, said Det. Travis Ibach. Seven of those involved injuries and 58 were non-injury crashes. On average, police record 30 to 50 collisions a day.

But outside of the city, RCMP were “overwhelmed” with numerous serious injury collisions on Highway 2, including one that sent an officer to hospital after being struck by a semi that lost control in the Red Deer area. The officer was checking on vehicle occupants at a crash scene at the time.

RCMP said a tanker truck involved in a secondary crash also rolled and leaked fuel.

Southbound Highway 2 was closed at Highway 12 at Lacombe.

Earlier Thursday morning, RCMP officers were busy with a crash on Highway 2 north of Airdrie.