Banff in a September Snow Storm

They're calling for 22'C and Sunny this afternoon in Calgary, much improved over the early September Blizzard we suffered through last Monday. So improved that my social media feeds have been flooded with images like this one:

I didn't get a chance to take before and after pictures myself, because I spent the during out in the mountains at a Scientific Meeting (The International Symposium on Resistance Arteries), where vascular scientists from all around the world had flown in to enjoy the tail end of Summer in the Rockies which sharing their most recent advances in the field of the resistance vasculature. While some of them came expecting Canada to be chillier than their home countries, I don't think any of us were expecting this:

Yep that's what I woke up to on Tuesday morning in Canmore before having to drive 25minutes to the Banff Center. Needless to say I was late for the 8am session. Good thing I keep my snow brush in my car all year round.

As for the driving, this was about as nice as it got heading out to the mountains Monday afternoon.

Regardless of the weather, or maybe even because of it, Banff was beautiful as always.

And with fewer deciduous trees still leaf bearing in the mountains, we didn't see nearly as many downed branches as in Calgary (where there is no considerable debate over what to do with all the downed 'firewood' on City Property being carted off to city landfills). In fact the trees in Banff looked quite beautiful.

Although all of that snow may have made easily accessible food scarce, sending this fellow to look for something green amid the hedges around the Max Bell Building.

Overall I was left feeling both annoyed and amazed by our brief September Winter, and was glad to see things warm back up over the weekend. Although the nights are still pretty chilly and smell of Autumn in the air tells me to enjoy these last days of summer while I can... because Winter is Coming.

Oooh Game of Thrones, will there ever be another book?

How did #snowtember treat you? Are you ready for, or sickened by the thought of Winter around the corner?