Mid-teen highs forecast across much of southern Alberta for the next few days

That dominant ridge of high pressure that has parked over Western Canada and the United States will continue to serve as the main weather-maker for southern Alberta.

There is an anchoring low over east-central Canada helping to hold that ridge in place and creating a very different weather story for areas east of Alberta.

Daytime highs in and around Calgary will sit in the mid-to-high teens for the next three days, with lows ranging from -1 C to 8 C.

Many of these highs will be close to record values and it is likely that some locations will tie and/or break maximum temperature records.

The forecast high for Wednesday in Calgary is 15 C, which is just shy of the record for that date (the record high for Feb. 4 is 16.2 C – set in 1992), but it is possible that Wednesday’s daytime high could be warmer than 15 C, especially given the unusually warm overnight values.

Early Wednesday, the temperatures at the Calgary airport was 12 C, which is more than 25 degrees warmer than the average overnight low of -13 C.

Most of the measurable snow around southern Alberta has melted and there will not be any new snow in the Calgary area for at least five days.

As this upper pattern starts to break down at the end of the weekend some instability will be introduced into the region and there is a 30 to 40 percent chance of light snow and/or mixed precipitation Sunday night and early Monday morning.

Early next week daytime highs will start to moderate, however even at their coolest they will still be above average and above freezing with the coldest high forecast to reach 3 C.