‘It’s not normal to be normal’: Chief meteorologist on Edmonton’s ‘false spring’

Melting snow and sunny skies in Edmonton on Feb. 5, 2026. (Jeremy Thompson/CTV News Edmonton)

It’s been a week of warm spells in the city – a veritable false spring that Edmontonians may have come to expect in March.

But CTV News Edmonton’s chief meteorologist, Josh Classen, says sporadic peaks and dips in temperature aren’t unusual at all, even this early.

“It’s not normal to be normal!” he said. “Our temperatures, especially in the winter, are almost always well above or below the seasonal averages.”

He added that it’s rare for the city to see entire months of fully colder or warmer temperatures, with trends undulating through December, January and February through history.

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

Edmonton can see prolonged stretches of colder or warmer weather during winter months, often from five to 10 days long, but does not typically stick to one trend for extended periods of time.

On average, December gets 10 days with highs above 0 C and nine days with highs below 0 C. January averages 10 and 10 of those types of days, respectively, while February averages 12 and six – although that split has looked more like 11 and 10 in the last five years.

Read more: More than 2-dozen record temperatures were set in Alberta Thursday

In December 2025, Edmonton had seven days above 0 C and 16 days with highs below -10 C.

In January, those numbers were 12 days above and seven days below.

So far this February, Edmonton has seen temperature highs above 0 C every day except for one. Which isn’t a long stretch, considering it’s only the first week of the month.

Read more: It’s staying warm through the weekend in Edmonton

Classen said that it’s looking a little chilly post-Valentine’s Day.

“There’s still some uncertainty with just how cold it’ll get, but it’ll definitely start feeling more like winter in that week after Feb. 14,” he added.

It’s too soon to say, though, if we’ll hit highs of below -20 C in February. That hasn’t happened, he noted, since 2023.

That year saw a lengthy stretch of warm weather in the first half of the month as La Niña, the climate trend of cooler-than-normal waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, weakened. In Edmonton, February 2023 ended in three straight days of deep freeze temperatures.

While it’s not certain this February will follow suit, Classen notes that winter is far from over yet.

And for anyone with central and eastern Canada friends who have been complaining about their arctic weather, Classen says western Canada is partly to blame.

“The atmosphere moves in waves. So when you get these strong ridges of high pressure over western Canada, it forces the arctic air to drop south over central Canada instead of over us,” he said.

“The reverse is also true – when they have a strong upper ridge, we’re locked into a colder trough.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Josh Classen