While You Were Parked · Sunday, October 25, 2026
Quiet, frosty Sunday. The Coquihalla work zone is the only score on the board.
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — overnight Oct 24 into Oct 25, checked before dawn, Edmonton time.
Edition No. 6. QEII low_c is the colder of the two endpoint lows (Calgary minus 6, Edmonton minus 4) — the conservative reading for the Will It Start? tool. Stale exclusions: an undated aggregator item about a fatal crash northeast of Calgary carried no verifiable date or highway and was not used; a Highway 5A overnight closure (Merritt to Douglas Lake Road, 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.) is a different highway from the Highway 5 corridor and was not scored. Nothing here is padded.
Alberta — Highway 2 (QEII)
QEII: cold and mostly dry, ice in places — minus 6 tonight at the Calgary end
Sunday dawns cold and mostly dry on the QEII. The 5:11 a.m. corridor read showed Highway 2 mostly dry with ice in places, lowest minus 9°C and winds to 11 km/h, and no Environment Canada warnings in force as of that check. At 5:00 a.m. Edmonton Blatchford read minus 7.3°C and calm, and Calgary International read minus 2.1°C with light snow and an east-southeast wind at 4 km/h. Environment Canada calls for a sunny day in Edmonton (high plus 3, morning wind chill minus 10) and periods of light snow ending near noon then cloudy in Calgary (high plus 1, morning wind chill minus 9). Tonight Edmonton falls to minus 4 with wind chill minus 9, and Calgary to minus 6 with wind chill minus 12 — cold, but below every scoring threshold except the wind-chill step.
Alberta — Highway 16 (Yellowhead)
Yellowhead: dry with ice in places, Jasper wind chill minus 12 tonight
The Yellowhead is also mostly dry with ice in places this morning — the 5:11 a.m. corridor read showed Highway 16 lowest minus 10°C near Edson with winds to 14 km/h, and no Environment Canada warnings in force. At the Jasper end, the 5:00 a.m. reading was minus 1.6°C with an east-northeast wind at 15 km/h. Environment Canada's Jasper forecast calls for a mainly cloudy day clearing this afternoon, high plus 2 with morning wind chill minus 12, and tonight a few clouds, low minus 9 and wind chill minus 12 overnight. No closures, no restrictions on the corridor.
Source: Environment Canada (Jasper direct) + Weather Navigation road report (presenting 511 Alberta data)
British Columbia — Highway 5 (Coquihalla)
Coquihalla open — one work zone left, winter conditions at the summit
Highway 5 between Hope and Kamloops stayed open to through traffic overnight with no incidents reported, checked at 4:00 a.m. PDT. One work zone remains in effect, down from two: the Nicolum Creek Bridge lane work ended Oct 24, and the paving lane closures in both directions continue. Drive times are running near typical — 2 hours southbound against a typical 1 hour 58 minutes, and 1 hour 55 minutes northbound against a typical 1 hour 51 minutes. Winter conditions are reported at the summit, and M+S or 3-peak-mountain-snowflake tires are required on the route from Oct 1 to Apr 30. Environment Canada's Merritt forecast (issued Saturday 4:00 p.m. PDT) calls for rain ending Sunday morning then cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers, snow level 1000 metres rising to 1400 metres, high 8, and Sunday night mainly cloudy with a low of plus 1. No chain-up requirement is posted.
Source: Is The Coquihalla Open (polling DriveBC's Open511 feed) + Environment Canada (Merritt direct) · Read next: Best tire chains for semi trucks in Canada
Ontario — Highway 401 (Windsor–Toronto–Kingston)
401: mainline open — one Toronto ramp closed overnight, warm and clear tonight
The 401 mainline is open through Toronto this morning, but one Toronto ramp is not: the live traffic read at 7:18 a.m. EDT showed a collision on the 401 westbound ramp at Highway 427 with all ramp lanes closed, reported about 10:18 p.m. EDT on Oct 24 — an interchange closure, not a corridor closure. The other current 401 items are continuous construction on the eastbound collector between McCowan Road and Neilson Road, rated moderate, and a disabled vehicle at Brock Road in Pickering with the right lane and right shoulder closed. Environment Canada's Toronto-area forecast is the warmest of the four corridors: sunny today, high 18, and tonight a few clouds with a low of plus 9. No EC alerts are shown for the corridor.
Alberta — week ahead (Environment Canada forecasts)
Week ahead: Sunday is the clear day — snow returns Wednesday across Alberta
The cold holds, then snow returns mid-week. Environment Canada's forecasts call for periods of snow on Wednesday in Edmonton (high minus 2), Calgary (high minus 2, with snow continuing Wednesday night to a low of minus 7) and Jasper (high minus 3, after periods of snow or rain on Tuesday). Monday is the mild break — sunny and high 7 in Edmonton, a mix of sun and cloud and high 4 in Calgary, mainly sunny and high 6 at Jasper. The message for drivers staging loads this week: Sunday is the clear travel day, Wednesday is the one to watch.
Source: Environment Canada (Edmonton + Calgary + Jasper direct) · Read next: Winter emergency gear for truck drivers
Bottom line for drivers
Frost and ice in places are the Alberta hazards this morning, the Coquihalla work zone is the only scored item, and the 401's trouble is one Toronto ramp, not the corridor. Wednesday brings snow back to Alberta — check 511 and Environment Canada before rolling.
Deeper on winter itself: the winter gear hub — heat, freeze, traction, sleep — and the free Winter Cab Checklist.
All editionsSaturday, October 24, 2026 →
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Compiled before dawn from Environment Canada alerts, 511 Alberta, DriveBC, and the outlets linked on each item. Conditions change faster than any roundup — check your provincial 511 before you roll.