The warm spell lingers for a few more days. But, things can change in a hurry in October and it looks like we’re in for a big swing in the weather pattern this weekend. Temperatures will climb into the upper teens in Edmonton Tuesday afternoon with a mix of sun and cloud and wind picking up a bit in the afternoon. We have some showers west and northwest of the Edmonton area early Tuesday morning and there’s a chance we’ll see a shower push through parts of the area late this morning or early this afternoon. Daytime highs will level off in the mid teens Wednesday-Friday ahead of the big weather-maker. We’re expecting an upper trough (colder air aloft) and fairly vigorous surface low-pressure system will bring some rain, snow and a dramatic cool down to parts of central and northern Alberta to start the long weekend. There’s still a high degree of uncertainty with where the precipitation will fall as snow and how much snow to expect. But, this COULD be accumulating snow in some areas... especially northwest of Edmonton and in the mountain parks. We’ll have a better handle on that later in the week. But, consider this your early heads-up. For the Edmonton area, there’s a chance of some showers Thursday evening (ahead of the surface low). Depending on how far south that system is, we could just be cloudy on Friday... or we could be dealing with showers and periods of rain. At this point, it looks like most of the steadier rain is probably north of Edmonton on Friday. BUT... as the system moves east, we get into a cooler northwest flow that’ll drag some of that precipitation down through the Edmonton area Saturday. So, that’s the day with the best chance for some steadier rain. It also looks like it’ll be gusty AND we’ll have temperatures steady around 4 or 5 C through the day. THEN...there’s also that upper trough, which could be cold enough to flip that precipitation over to snow for some areas Friday night and early Saturday. I don’t think we can completely rule out the chance of some wet flurries mixed in with the rain in Edmonton early Saturday morning and there IS an outside chance that (depending on how things all line up) we COULD even see some accumulating snow in the Edmonton region Saturday. AGAIN, there’s still a lot of uncertainty with this setup, so I’m just laying out all the possibilities. Here’s what I think is most likely (as of Tuesday morning): We get some showers Friday night and some steadier periods of rain Saturday, with some wet flurries mixed in early Saturday. Temperatures hover around 4/5 C with wind gusting around 50km/h Saturday. All-in-all... an ugly day. The precipitation moves off late Saturday, but we’ll stay mostly cloudy with a high in the 5 to 8 C range on Sunday. So... not much warmer, but at least the wind should be down and it should be dry. Then, we get some clearing Monday with temperatures a handful of degrees below 0 C in the morning and up around 10/11 C in the afternoon. After the long weekend, milder air moves back in. So... this won’t be a lengthy cold spell. Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area: Today - Mix of sun & cloud. 30% chance of a shower. Wind becoming NW 20 gusting to 40 km/h this afternoon. High: 18 Tonight - Mainly clear. Wind easing in the evening. 9pm: 12 Wednesday - Mainly sunny. Increasing cloud late in the afternoon. Morning Low: 3 Afternoon High: 16 Thursday - Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of a shower in the evening. Morning Low: 6 Afternoon High: 15 Friday - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers. Morning Low: 6 Afternoon High: 15 Saturday - Cloudy. 60% chance of showers. Risk of rain/snow mix. Windy. Morning Low: 2 Afternoon High: 5 Sunday - Mostly cloudy. Morning Low: -2 Afternoon High: 6
