Temperatures to reach mid-teens by Thursday

Temperatures will take a turn later this week. Jodi Hughes has a look at the five-day forecast from the Sky Watch Weather Centre.

Mild conditions are expected for most of Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan on Wednesday as a ridge of high pressure sits over the southwestern portion of the country.

Winds are expected to be mild with a mix of sun and cloud around Calgary on Wednesday including for the evening and overnight hours.

Daytime highs Wednesday will be a few degrees warmer than average for most of Alberta with low-double digits highs forecast for the south.

This upper pattern will start to break down on Thursday introducing colder air and mild instability into Northern Canada.

Ahead of this change, mixed precipitation is likely for northern Alberta by Thursday morning.

In southern Alberta, temperatures will peak on Thursday with a final push of warmer air moving from the Pacific basin.

Calgary’s high Thursday should reach 15 C with values even warmer in communities south of the city.

A low-pressure system situated along the Pacific northwest coastline will eventually become a “closed low” by the end of the week breaking off from the jet stream and operating somewhat independent of the upper flow above it.

This type of synoptic set-up typically produces large amounts of precipitation and enhances instability for areas north of the low.

As such heavy rain is expected along the B.C. coastline Thursday and Friday with rain transitioning to snow across southern B.C. by Friday.

Some of that precipitation will cross over the Rockies, but the bulk should remain in the northern portions of the range in Alberta as well as west and north of Calgary initially.

As the weekend progresses temperatures are expected to moderate in southern Alberta and by early next week daytime highs will drop to values below seasonal.

Starting Monday, the daily highs in Calgary are forecast to hover around 0 C with lows between -2 C and -7 C.

The normal temperature range this time of year in Calgary is 3 C for a high and -9 C for a low.