Edmonton weather: Sunny, warmer and breezy

Friday is the warmest day this long weekend before the temperature drops.

There’s a little “wrinkle” in the long-range outlook for Monday with the potential for rain and snow. But, I’ll get to that in a moment.

In the shorter term there are some nice, warm spring days on the way.

Temperatures managed to get to 11 C with a late-day jump once the sun broke out on Wednesday.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

We’ll be under sunny skies all day today in Edmonton and area, so I think we’ll get to 11 or 12 C this afternoon.

Wind won’t be as strong as yesterday (gusts were in the 40-50 km/h range most of the day), but we’ll be breezy midday and this afternoon with northwesterlies at 15-20 km/h and gusts in the 30 to 40 range.

A little band of flurries pushed through parts of the Edmonton region in the early-morning hours, and that’s now moved off and affecting areas from around Drayton Valley SE to Red Deer and Drumheller.

That precip will continue to push south through the morning.

An area of low pressure moves into NW Alberta tonight and we’ll get a kick of some warm air ahead of that system for Friday.

That should boost temperatures to the mid-to-upper teens in Edmonton Friday afternoon under Partly Cloudy skies.

Again, we’ll have a bit of wind (15 gusting to around 30 km/h).

That low pressure system will bring some showers and mixed precip to northern Alberta, but anything that moves through the Edmonton area late Friday night or early Saturday morning is expected to fall as rain.

It’s just a 30 per cent chance of a few scattered showers (nothing significant for moisture) as the cold front trailing that northern low sweeps across central Alberta.

Some steadier rain and pockets of snow are likely further south in the Calgary region and the southern mountain parks.

Temperatures will pull back to the 12-to-15-degree range for the weekend after Friday’s big warm-up.

And THEN...Monday could get interesting.

An area of low pressure is set to develop somewhere near Red Deer and the latest modelling indicates and decent amount of moisture with this system.

Precip-typing will be difficult to get a firm handle on (especially this many days out), but there does appear to be the possibility of some rain turning to pockets of heavier, wet snow and the potential for accumulation in some parts of central and/or north-central Alberta.

At this point I don’t have a very high level of confidence in how this will play out on Monday. So, the best idea is to keep an eye on forecasts in the coming days to see how it develops, especially if you have travel plans for Monday.

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Mainly sunny. Wind becoming N 20 gusting to 40 km/h midday & this afternoon.

High: 11

Tonight - A few clouds. Wind easing overnight.

9pm: 6

Friday - Partly cloudy. Wind S 15 gusting to 30 km/h.

Morning Low: -1

Afternoon High: 17

Saturday - Cloudy with a few sunny breaks. 30% chance of a shower in the morning.

Wind NW 20 gusting to 40 km/h

Morning Low: 6

Afternoon High: 14

Sunday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: 2

Afternoon High: 13

Monday - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of rain/snow mix.

Morning Low: 0

Afternoon High: 8

Tuesday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -2

Afternoon High: 12