Sunny and hot with a late-night storm risk

CTV Edmonton's drone flies low over a wheat field near Alberta's capital city on July 31, 2024. (Cam Wiebe / CTV News Edmonton)

The Edmonton area could be in for a late night of thunderstorms, possibly severe thunderstorms.

• Hourly and 7-day forecast on our CTVNewsEdmonton.ca weather hub

After a hot and sunny day, we’re expecting storms to develop in the northern foothills late this afternoon.

Those storms will head east into a favourable environment and will have the potential to produce large hail, heavy downpours, damaging gusts near 100km/h and possibly a tornado.

Here’s the severe weather outlook from Environment and Climate Change Canada:

Most of that area in the orange high-risk zone will not get severe weather.

But, the exact location of the storms is still uncertain, so that zone is purposefully large.

Once the storms start to fire up, we’ll see severe thunderstorms watches and warnings issued.

For areas southwest of Edmonton, the risk will be in the evening hours.

But, for the city itself, the risk is late tonight/overnight.

Here’s what our high-res Futurecast model is projecting:

It’s important to note that those images are just model guidance and don’t depict exactly where the storm(s) will be.

But, it does give us a pretty good idea of the timeline.

Stay alert to any severe weather advisories that get issued later today.

Looking ahead: Daytime highs will be in the 26 to 30 C range through the rest of week.

We get another risk of storms Wednesday evening/night. The better chance for those storms late Wednesday will be north of the Edmonton area.

Friday evening and Saturday evening also feature a thunderstorm risk.

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Sunny with a few clouds.

Wind becoming SE 20 gusting to 40 km/h in the afternon.

High: 27

Tonight - 60% chance of showers/thunderstorms. Risk of a severe thunderstorm.

Wind SE 20 gusting to 40 km/h.

9pm: 23

Wednesday - Partly cloudy morning. Mostly cloudy afternoon with a 60% chance of evening and/or overnight thunderstorms.

Morning Low: 15

Afternoon High: 27

Thursday - Clearing in the morning, then Mainly Sunny.

Morning Low: 16

Afternoon High: 29

Friday - Sunny with a few clouds. 40% chance of a late-day shower/thunderstorm.

Morning Low: 16

Afternoon High: 29

Saturday - Partly cloudy. 60% chance of an evening thunderstorm.

Morning Low: 17

Afternoon High: 28

Sunday - Mix of sun & cloud. 40% chance of evening and overnight showers/thunderstorms.

Morning Low: 17

Afternoon High: 25