Mild Monday with colder temperatures by Thursday

Southern Alberta will continue to experience warmer than average temperatures to start this week, with daytime highs in Calgary of 4 C Monday and 2 C Tuesday.

A ridge of high pressure remains situated over Western Canada with a dominant anchoring low and a number of supporting lows over central Canada.

That main polar vortex will swing back toward the west by the middle of the week and allow colder air to settle over a good portion of the country for Wednesday through Friday.

In Calgary, the daytimes will bottom out at -10 C on Thursday with a low of -18 C, but this is actually a better result than expected.

Last week, it was looking as if the daytime highs might drop to -17 C in Calgary with lows in the -20’s and that this cold spell would last longer.

As of Monday morning, both the duration of cold weather and the drop in highs will be more moderate for the Calgary area.

The normal range of temperatures in Calgary this time of year includes highs of -3 C and lows of -15 C.