Edmonton weather: Major snowfall expected Christmas Eve

The Edmonton skyline and river valley on Dec. 23, 2025. (CTV News Edmonton)

A pair of significant snow events will hit the province this week and it looks like both will impact the Edmonton region.

The first one comes Wednesday and cause problems for anyone travelling on Christmas Eve.

The snow will start around Calgary early in the morning and then march northward with a band of snow that’ll stretch west to east right across the province.

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By 8 a.m.(ish), it’ll hit Red Deer and should roll into the Edmonton region between 10 a.m. and noon.

Snow will continue to fall (heavily at times) right through into the early evening hours in the Edmonton area.

The heaviest snowfall will likely hit the QE2 corridor between Edmonton and Red Deer as well as areas east along Highway 16 to Lloydminster.

Ten to 20 cm of snow is possible in those areas and it’s likely that a Snowfall Warning will be issued later today.

For now, there’s a large chunk of the province under a Special Weather Statement pertaining to the snow.

The Whitecourt/Edson areas are also included in that advisory and although they probably won’t get as much as areas further south and east - they should still see a significant dump of snow (about 5-10 cm.)

Thankfully, the wind will stay light (5-10 km/h) throughout the day Wednesday, so blowing snow shouldn’t be much of an issue in most areas.

The exception to that is east-central Alberta where afternoon/evening gusts could up around 30-40 km/h.

We’ll get a break from the snow on Thursday and should even get a bit of sun early in the day.

Then, we get a similar setup for Friday with snow developing on the northern edge of a low pressure system that’ll slip across southern Alberta.

It’s a few days out - but it looks like Edmonton will be in the “snow zone” again.

Early indications point towards the possibility for 5 to 10cm of snow Friday.

Temperature outlook:

We continue to have some “issues” with the official Blatchford weather station reading anomalously “warm” compared to surrounding stations.

This morning, there was a 4 to 5 degree difference between ALL of the other weather stations in the city and the one at Blatchford.

So...this will probably go into the record books as a day with a -16 C or -17 C high (just like the last few days).

But, most neighbourhoods are going to be in the -18 C to -20 C range for highs today.

Bottom line - no major swings to temperature through Saturday, but, a big (albeit brief) warm-up looks very likely for Sun/Mon/Tue.

Temperatures should get back to the 0 C to -5 C range late Sunday and then afternoon highs are forecast to be a few degrees above zero for Mon/Tue.

There’s another shot of cold coming for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, BUT...it looks like we’ll get a few days of warmth early next week.

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Partly cloudy.

High: -18 C

Tonight - Increasing cloud overnight.

9 p.m.: -25 C

Temperatures dropping near -28 C late this evening and then climbing.

CHRISTMAS EVEWednesday - Cloudy. Snow starting by mid-morning and continuing until the mid-evening.

10-15cm likely.

Morning: -23C

Afternoon High: -18C

CHRISTMAS DAY

Thursday - Partly cloudy in the morning. Increasing late-day cloud.

Morning Low: -23 C

Afternoon High: -18 C

60 per cent chance of snow overnight.

Friday - Cloudy with periods of snow.

5-10cm possible.

Morning Low: -21 C

Afternoon High: -16 C

Becoming gusty overnight.

Saturday - Mix of sun & cloud. Gusty in the morning, wind easing in the afternoon.

Morning Low: -20

Afternoon High: -17

Temperature rising overnight.

Sunday - Mostly cloudy.

Morning Low: -12

Afternoon High: -4