The mild spell continues for two more days, but there’s an abrupt flip in the weather pattern starting Friday. Edmonton will get temperatures up around 14 C Wednesday and Thursday afternoons under mainly sunny skies. THEN...it gets stormy for Friday with rain/snow/gusty wind and a big drop in temperature. A low-pressure system will drive into the province from the south Thursday night/Friday. At the same time, an upper trough dives in aloft. That colder air in the mid and upper levels will flip the rain over to snow and there could be several centimetres of accumulation in parts of east-central and northeast Alberta by Saturday morning. For the Edmonton area, the precipitation will start out as rain late Thursday night or early Friday morning and then flips over to a rain/snow mix or just flat-out snow through the late morning and afternoon hours Friday. Snow accumulation in and around Edmonton remains the big question. I think it’s POSSIBLE we get one to five centimetres by Friday night. It’ll depend on how quickly the flip to snow occurs and the path of the low-pressure system. Aside from the rain and snow, it’ll be windy all day (gusts near 60 km/h in the afternoon) and temperatures will hover just slightly above 0 C through the day. This storm will impact a large portion of Alberta, particularly southern, central and eastern parts and anyone with plans to be on highways Friday should pay close attention to the weather and road conditions before heading out. The snow should all be out of the Edmonton area by Friday night and we’ll get a few sunny breaks on Saturday. Temperatures will top out around 3 or 4 C and it’ll be a bit breezy (gusts near 30 km/h)...but not as windy as Friday. Another shot of snow hits southern and western Alberta on Sunday. It looks like that should all stay southwest of Edmonton, but I’ve put a slight chance of some flurries in the forecast for Sunday. Looking long range: daytime highs will settle into the 1 to 5 C range right through next week. So...after Wednesday/Thursday... it looks like the above-average temperatures are gone for a while. Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area: Today - Mainly sunny. High: 14 Tonight - Mainly clear. 9pm: 6 Thursday - Sunny most of the day. Increasing cloud in the evening. Morning Low: -2 Afternoon High: 14 70% chance of showers overnight. Friday - Cloudy. Rain turning to snow. Wind NW 20-30 with gusts 40 to 60 km/h. Morning: 4 Afternoon: 2 Saturday - Partly cloudy. Breezy. Wind NW 15 gusting to 30 km/h Morning Low: -3 Afternoon High: 4 Sunday - Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of flurries. Morning Low: -4 Afternoon High: 3 Monday - Mostly cloudy. Morning Low: -4 Afternoon High: 5
