Extreme cold warnings lifted in several regions in Alberta

It's still mighty cold in Calgary Friday, but weather warnings have been lifted in the mountain park regions which means we're nearly out of this mess for now.

Calgary — While the rest of the province remained shivering under a persistent extreme cold warning Friday, weather in the mountain parks is looking a lot better.

Environment Canada lifted the warnings for Banff National Park, Jasper National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park on Thursday.

That doesn't mean that the temperatures will be balmy by any means in those regions as the forecasted high is only expected to reach -16 C in Banff, with the wind chill making it feel more like -25.

Jasper's forecasted high will reach -22 C while Waterton is expected to hit -24 C. With the wind chill factored in, it will feel a lot more like -30 and -33 respectively.

The entire province of Alberta, Saskatchewan and portions of B.C. and Manitoba have been under an extreme weather warning for much of the week this week after an arctic air mass moved into the region last week.

A section of southern Alberta, including Lethbridge, was excluded from the extreme cold warning late Thursday, but Environment Canada re-established that advisory Friday morning.

The real deep freeze in Alberta is still expected to lift sometime Sunday, when temperatures in Calgary are forecasted to jump from -21 C on Saturday to 2 C just 24 hours later.

Edmonton won't be as warm as here though as Environment Canada reports the capital city will only get to -16 C on Sunday. That city won't see positive temperatures until at least mid-week.