Josh Classen's forecast: Warm & sunny spell begins, but gusty today

An undated image of downtown Edmonton's skyline and the North Saskatchewan River valley. (CTV News Edmonton)

If you've been waiting for a prolonged stretch of sunny and warm weather, you'll love this forecast for the rest of the week.

Edmonton hasn't had more than two consecutive days in the 20s so far this year, but that's about to change.

We'll be very close to 20 C this afternoon (I'm going with 19 C for a high, but 20 C is definitely possible). Then...highs in the 20 to 25 C range from Thursday right through to early-mid next week (maybe longer).

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It's looking more like "low 20s" for Thursday/Friday and then "mid 20s" for Saturday/Sunday/Monday/Tuesday with Sunday probably ending up as the warmest day.

There's a ridge of high pressure building in from the southwest over the coming days. That ridge is the northern part of a heat dome that's setting up over the SW United States. We're WAY out on the northern edge of that, so we won't get the extreme heat that they're expecting stateside.

AND...the ridge hasn't fully moved north yet, so we'll get some gusty WNW wind today and probably tomorrow (although, today should feature the stronger wind speeds).

Calmer conditions will likely develop for Fri/Sat.

It's a different story in Northern Alberta, especially the NE corner. Rain will continue today and there are showers or periods of rain in the forecast for rest of this week in areas around Fort McMurray and north.

In fact, the northern edge of the incoming ridge will probably run through that part of the province, so they'll continue to be see a chance of showers/thunderstorms right through the weekend.

Edmonton and area might see some late-day showers and/or thunderstorms Sunday and Monday as the ridge collapses. But, we're not expecting to see much cooling at the surface. That ridge collapse will mostly just put us back into a more unstable situation with a bit more cloud and the possibility for showers/thunderstorms next week.

 

Here's the forecast for Edmonton and area:

 

Today - Sunny with a few afternoon clouds. Windy. NW 30 gusting to 50 km/h.

High: 19

 

Tonight - Clearing & wind easing.

9pm: 15

 

Thursday - Mainly sunny. Wind W 20 gusting at times to 40 km/h.

Morning Low: 8

Afternoon High: 20

 

Friday - Mainly sunny.

Morning Low: 9

Afternoon High: 21

 

Saturday - Mainly sunny.

Morning Low: 10

Afternoon High: 23

 

Sunday - Partly cloudy. 30% chance of a late-day shower.

Morning Low: 11

Afternoon High: 25

 

Monday - Partly cloudy. 30% chance of a late-day shower.

Morning Low: 13

Afternoon High: 24