Josh Classen's forecast: Deep freeze will last all week and break for the weekend

Temperatures dropped in the -30s in Edmonton this morning and that's probably not the last of the -30something mornings.

We'll crawl back to -27 C or -28 C for a daytime high this afternoon.

Wind is about 10-15 km/h this early this morning, but it should back off to 5-10 km/h for midday and this afternoon.

Wind chills in the -40s this morning mean frost bite is possible on exposed skin in as little as five to 10 minutes.

We'll have wind chills in the -35 range in the city this afternoon.

 

A few spots have slipped into the -40s on thermometers this morning, particularly in the foothills and mountain parks.

Those regions will struggle to get above -30 C through the day.

 

Not much changes over the next few days; it just stays brutally cold across the province.

Winter officially starts tomorrow and we'll begin to get a bit more daylight starting Thursday.

That might be the only "bright spot" to Thursday which could be our coldest morning in the city. Yes...probably even colder than this morning.

 

We'll start to break out of the coldest air on Friday. Whether we get slightly above -20 C or not remains to be seen.

It's still going to be cold on Friday, just not AS cold as today, Wednesday and Thursday.

 

The weekend remains a bit of an uncertainty for temperatures. I'll continue to stay conservative with forecast highs near -15 C on Saturday and -10 C on Sunday.

There IS a chance we're warmer than that, so we'll see how the pattern shapes up and if it continues to trend mild tomorrow, I'll have to increase those forecast highs.

Next week certainly looks mild with temperatures in the -1 C to -6 C range for daytime highs.

 

Here's the forecast for Edmonton and area:

 

Today - Partly cloudy. Wind: NW 5-10 km/h

Wind chill in around -40 this morning and near -35 this afternoon.

High: -28

 

Tonight - Partly cloudy. Wind: NW 5-10 km/h

9pm: -29 ***wind chill near -32

 

Wednesday - Partly cloudy. Breezy. NW 15 gusting to 30 km/h.

WINTER SOLSTICE

Morning Low: -30 ***wind chill in the -40s

Afternoon High: -27 ***wind chill near -38

 

Thursday - Mainly sunny.

Morning Low: -35

Afternoon High: -29

 

Temperature rising overnight.

 

Friday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -27

Afternoon High: -20

 

Saturday - Partly cloudy.

Christmas Eve

Morning Low: -22

Afternoon High: -15

 

Sunday - Mostly cloudy.

Christmas Day

Morning Low: -20

Afternoon High: -10