Josh Classen's forecast: Cold spell deepens

Edmonton managed to get into single digits on Tuesday as temperatures climbed to -8 C in the evening. But, that's it for single-digit temperatures for the rest of the month.

Temperatures didn't drop off as much as anticipated this morning, but it looks like we'll just hold steady near -12 C for much of today before starting to cool quickly tonight.

That'll be our fifth day with a high below -10 C and we should end the month with eight such days. In the past five years, the city has only had a combined total of nine days with highs of -10 C or colder.

An area of snow will develop in northwest Alberta later today and that'll push southeast this evening.

Parts of the Peace Country, Edson, Whitecourt and Evansburg regions could get upwards of 5 cm of snow and we may even get a bit of accumulation just west and southwest of Edmonton.

For most of the city, it should just be some flurries or light snow early Thursday morning with minimal accumulation.

Friday still looks like the best chance to pick up 1-4 cm of snow as another pockets of precipitation slides eastward across the province. Most of that snow should be north of the city, but it's very likely that we'll see some occasional light snow in Edmonton Friday.

The coldest air in the coming days will settle over northern and eastern Alberta. Daytime highs are forecast to be in the -15 C to -20 C range today through Sunday.

In the Edmonton region, the coldest daytime high so far this cold spell has been -13 C on Sunday. But, I think we'll drop further than that in the coming days.

Morning lows are projected to be around -20 C Thursday-Saturday and afternoon highs should be in the -15/-16 C range.

Temperatures start to moderate on Sunday, although we're probably still no warmer than the -10 C to -14 C range.

Monday should get closer to -5 C and daytime highs through the rest of next week are expected to hover in the -3 C to 3 C range thanks to the return of a warm upper ridge.

 

Here's the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Mix of sun & cloud.

High: -12

 

Tonight - Increasing cloud overnight.

9pm: -17

 

Thursday - 60% chance of flurries early in the morning. Cloudy with some afternoon sunny breaks.

40% chance of evening flurries.

Morning Low: -20

Afternoon High: -16

 

Friday - Mostly cloudy. 60% chance of light snow. 1 to 4 cm likely.

Morning Low: -18

Afternoon High: -15

 

Saturday - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of late-day flurries.

Morning Low: -20

Afternoon High: -16

 

Sunday - Mostly cloudy.

Morning Low: -17

Afternoon High: -12

 

Monday - Mostly cloudy.

Morning Low: -15

Afternoon High: -5