Josh Classen’s forecast: Last day of the cold spell. It’s about to feel 20 degrees warmer

Snow and ice covers most of the North Saskatchewan River in this Jan. 22, 2025, aerial photo taken over Edmonton's Walterdale Bridge. (Cam Wiebe / CTV News Edmonton)

One. More. Day.

Today won’t be as cold as Monday and Tuesday, but we have temperatures in the minus mid-20s in Edmonton and area this morning and we’ll only get to the minus mid-teens this afternoon.

AND...just like yesterday, the wind is expected to be a bit brisk.

Wind speeds of about 10-20 km/h will give us wind chills in the -30s through the morning and in the -22 to -27 range this afternoon.

This hasn’t been an historic cold spell; 2021 and 2019 were pretty similar.

But...that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been an unusually prolonged stretch of cold.

Every day this February has been colder than average and Edmonton is running about 12 degrees below average through the first 19 days of the month.

All that is set to change soon. The 2021 deep freeze ended on Feb. 19 and this 2025 edition will end on Feb. 20.

The arctic air mass will shift off to the east and warmer air will push in from the west starting Thursday.

We’ll be in the minus teens in the morning, warming to around -5 C by midday and up around 1 C mid-afternoon.

That’ll be about 15 degrees warmer than today and FEELING 20-something degrees warmer if you compare tomorrow’s temperatures to this afternoon’s wind chill values.

Even eastern Alberta will tap into some milder air starting Thursday, with afternoon highs in the -5 to -10 C range (followed by near or slightly above 0 C temperatures Friday-Sunday).

Once that warmer air moves in, it’s sticking around through to the end of the month. After a frozen first half of February, we’re in for a sloppy and melty finish.

Daytime highs are forecast to be in the 2 to 7 C range from this Friday right through into the start of March.

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Mainly sunny this morning. Partly cloudy this afternoon.

Wind SE 10-20 km/h. Wind chill near -35 in the morning and -25 in the afternoon.

High: -15

Tonight - Increasing cloud.

Wind SE 10-15 km/h. Wind chill in the -25 range overnight.

9pm: -16

Temperature rising overnight.

Thursday - Morning clouds. Afternoon sun. Light wind.

Morning: -13

Afternoon High: 1

Temperature falling to -9 in the evening and then rising overnight.

Friday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning: -4

Afternoon High: 4

Saturday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -3

Afternoon High: 5

Sunday - Mix of sun & cloud. Breezy.

Morning Low: -3

Afternoon High: 6

Monday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -2

Afternoon High: 4