Josh Classen's forecast: Average temperatures and a reprieve from the smoke

Smoke hangs over Edmonton in this May 13, 2024, picture taken from north of downtown. (Cam Wiebe / CTV News Edmonton)

The thick wildfire smoke that blew in from the northwest over the weekend has moved out of the Edmonton area and modelling indicates "cleaner" air for Monday/Tuesday in the Edmonton area and all of central and southern Alberta.

Smoke will continue to be an issue across parts of northern Alberta.

The Environment and Climate Change Canada smoke models only stretch out to Wednesday morning and keep the Edmonton area smoke-free through that timeframe.

Looking at the mid and upper level wind directions, the smoke should stay in northern Alberta through to at least Thursday morning and then there's a chance we'll see some smoke return late Thursday or Friday.

Confidence on that is low as of right now and we'll continue to monitor and update that situation through the week.

As of right now, it appears smoke shouldn't be much of an issue until maybe the end of the week.

We had some thunderstorms pop up south and east of Edmonton (even some severe thunderstorms) late Sunday.

Early this morning, another area of showers develops from around Edmonton south to Red Deer and northeast toward Fort McMurray.

That precipitation will move east of the Edmonton region by mid-morning and we'll see some sunny breaks midday and early this afternoon.

There's another chance of some scattered showers popping up late this afternoon/early this evening.

Drier and a bit sunnier for Tuesday/Wednesday in the city with afternoon highs in the 16 to 20 C range today through Wednesday.

That's pretty close to average for this time of year.

The long-range outlook has a better chance of showers or periods of rain for late Thursday and through the day Friday.

 

Here's the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Showers ending this morning, then a mix of sun & cloud.

40% chance of showers late this afternoon.

High: 18

 

Tonight - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers in the evening.

9pm: 15

 

Tuesday - Partly cloudy.

Morning Low: 9

Afternoon High: 19

 

Wednesday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: 9

Afternoon High: 18

 

Thursday - Increasing cloud. 40% chance of late-day showers.

Morning Low: 7

Afternoon High: 17

 

Friday - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers.

Morning Low: 6

Afternoon High: 13

 

Saturday - Partly cloudy.

Morning Low: 4

Afternoon High: 15