Gusty wind ushers in a big cool down

Roofers dashed to secure shingles, golf courses were quiet, and Edmonton's airport dealt with flight cancellations as winds gusted through Edmonton on Thursday.

Edmonton and area will see a few showers and periods of steadier rain this morning.

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

By this afternoon, that’ll become just a chance of a few scattered showers and we may even see some breaks in the cloud.

There’s a chance of a couple scattered showers in the forecast for Friday/Saturday, but those two days should be mostly dry.

The big story today is the wind. We’ve had gusts in the 40-60 km/h range across the Edmonton region this morning and that’ll increase late this morning and early this afternoon.

Sustained wind speeds of 30-40 with gusts in the 60-70 km/h range are likely midday. Occasional gusts over 70 km/h are possible and a wind warning is in effect for today.

The gusts will ease a bit late tonight and then we’ll have gusts around 40 km/h through at least the first half of the day Friday.

So...today will be the gustiest day, but it’ll still be breezy/windy Friday. It’s looking calmer for Saturday, though.

The weather-maker is a deep area of low pressure over Saskatchewan. On the backside of that system, we’re not only getting the wind and rain... we also have some cooler air being drawn in from the north.

Temperatures will get to 13 or 14 C this afternoon and then highs will be in the 10 C range for Friday/Saturday in Edmonton.

Morning temperatures will slip close to 0 C Saturday-Monday mornings.

Temperatures should get back to around 13 C Sunday afternoon with some sunny breaks and we’ll be in the mid teens Monday afternoon with partly cloudy skies.

Elsewhere, rainfall warnings remain in place across northern Alberta with 20-30 mm of rain expected and some localized pockets closer to 50 mm.

I think we’ll also see some heavier rain in parts of eastern Alberta.

Some of that rain will flip over to wet snow in the Cold Lake/Lloydminster areas Friday.

There’s an outside chance of some mixed precip in or near the Edmonton region early Friday - but it really looks like this should be all rain for the city.

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Cloudy with periods of rain this morning. Mostly cloudy with a 40% chance of showers this afternoon.

Wind NW 30-40 with gusts 50-70 km/h throughout the day.

High: 14

Tonight - Mostly cloudy.

Wind 20-30 with gusts 40-50 km/h in the evening, easing overnight.

Friday - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers. Clearing late in the day.

Wind NW 20 gusting to 40 km/h in the morning, becoming N 15 gusting to 30 in the afternoon.

Morning Low: 8

Afternoon High: 11

Saturday - Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of a shower.

Morning Low: 2

Afternoon High: 9

Sunday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: 1

Afternoon High: 13

Monday - Partly cloudy.

Morning Low: 2

Afternoon High: 16

Tuesday - Partly cloudy.

Morning Low: 5

Afternoon High: 18