Roads and highways in and around the city are covered in heavy, wet snow and motorists can expect significant delays as they slog through snow clogged streets on Tuesday.

Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for the following areas:

The weather agency says snowfall amounts between 10 and 30 cm are expected in the city and up to 35 cm is possible for the mountain parks.

“We’re dealing with an unseasonably harsh dose of winter very early in our season. The fact that winter has arrived earlier than we typically get, with much more snowfall than we typically get, there are preparations and resources that we normally have on standby that have been activated. Environment Canada, in talking to them today, says that we haven’t had this much snow since 1914 and 1957, almost 60 years ago,” said Chief Tom Sampson, Calgary Emergency Operations Centre.

Sampson says additional resources are coming in from neighbouring communities to help out.

“We’ll be bringing additional plows and sanders into the City of Calgary to get a handle on this today,” he said. “We’ve had reports from our parks folks that they’ve brought in all available contractors to assist with pathway clearing and check our trees. We’ve only had five tree emergencies so far.”

The snow will taper off Tuesday evening and the system is expected to clear out of the region by Wednesday.

Motorists are being advised to use caution and to be prepared for changing conditions.

Travel tips for drivers:

Clear all snow and ice from the windshield and windows before driving and turn on headlights to activate tail lights and increase visibility.

Remember to maintain a safe distance between vehicles.

Keep a winter emergency kit in your vehicle.

Give snowplows room to work and stay back at least 10 metres to prevent collisions.

Consider postponing non-essential travel

Calgary police say 251 collisions were reported between 11:00 p.m. Monday and 3:30 p.m. Tuesday;

RCMP says the Trans-Canada Highway west of the city is in poor driving condition and drivers are being asked to avoid travel in the area if possible.

The city says plows are out clearing major routes but that it will take a few days to clean up from the storm.

“We did have staff on last night working to deal with this snowstorm. Again, I would like to reiterate that because of the timing the snow fell onto the ground it made it very difficult for us to have the roads cleared for rush hour. It’s the timing of the snow and that’s what made this one extremely difficult for us,” said Bill Biensch, Roads Maintenance Manager. “We do have sanders and graders out there dealing with our road conditions at the present time.”

A snow route parking ban has been declared for Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.

“We’re asking people to remove their vehicles from any snow routes as of 10:00 a.m. tomorrow,” said Biensch. “We will be having equipment out there to clear those roadways within the next 72 hours.”

Calgary Transit says some buses are running late because of the road conditions and there are a few detours in place.

“I’ll be honest, we were challenged. Transit operations are a bit different than driving your car. We ask our drivers to stop as close to the curb as possible and that’s where we can have challenges and get stuck, especially as the snow accumulated so quickly. So we’re working hard to recover any buses that are stuck currently. We did have about 50 stuck during the rush hour, lots of delays, lots of late buses,” said Doug Morgan, Director of Calgary Transit.

The Calgary Board of Education says schools are open and yellow buses are still running.

The city has opened the Calgary Emergency Operations Centre to help Calgarians deal with the heavy snowfall.

The Calgary Airport says it is working to clear snow from runways and that some delays should be expected.

Travellers are being advised to check the airport's website for the latest information on flights

For updated information regarding weather warnings and watches, visit Environment Canada – Public Weather Alerts.

For the latest on road conditions in Calgary, follow YYC Transportation on twitter or check the CTV Calgary Traffic Page HERE.

For updates on highway conditions, follow 511 Alberta on twitter, visit AMA Roads Reports and the DriveBC sites.

Download the CTV Calgary Sky Watch Weather App for real-time weather forecasts and video updates on conditions HERE.

For more information on the city’s snow removal process, click HERE.