Josh Classen's forecast: Week ends with temperatures near record highs

An aerial image of the sun rising over the North Saskatchewan River in central Edmonton, taken from over the Glenora neighbourhood on Oct. 29, 2024. (Cam Wiebe / CTV News Edmonton)

Temperatures in Edmonton today and tomorrow will be more on par with early-to-mid September highs and lows, rather than early November.

But...we'll see a cooldown through the weekend and early next week.

The record high for Nov. 7 is 15.0 C in 1949. We'll be close, but probably short of that record today. I think we'll get to around 13 C this afternoon.

The Nov. 8 record high is 19.5 C in 2016. Again, that record is safe...but we'll get to 15 or 16 C in Edmonton tomorrow.

Given that the average high is 2 C, we're WAY closer to records than averages.

Our record LOW for Nov. 7 is 4.4 C (1905). It looks like we'll break that record with a morning low of 5.9 C (and we'll probably stay above 4.4 C through this evening).

It's all thanks to some warm air aloft with an upper ridge passing through and an area of low pressure in northwest Alberta also helping to pull in some warmer air from the south.

The ridge will collapse a bit through the weekend and we'll see afternoon highs slip to the 5 C range for Saturday-Monday. By Tuesday/Wednesday...we're around average (highs near 2 C) and the end of next week looks like it'll feature afternoon highs around or slightly below 0 C.

Side note about Remembrance Day temperatures: If we get to the forecast high of 6 C, it would be the 3rd-warmest Nov. 11 in the past decade.

2016 had a high of 11 C on Nov. 11 and last year, Edmonton had a high of 8 C on Remembrance Day.

 

Precipitation outlook: We have some showers in northwest Alberta this morning and there's even been a few pockets of precipitation just northwest of Edmonton early this morning.

I think most (probably all) of the city will stay dry, but there's a slight risk of a few raindrops this morning.

The bulk of the moisture will stay in be around Grande Prairie, with some lighter showers stretching towards the Whitecourt region this morning.

That precipitation will push north and east through the day.

The next-best chance of precipitation for the Edmonton region is a chance of some showers on Saturday, especially later in the day.

 

Here's the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - A few clouds this morning...then Mainly sunny.

High: 13

 

Tonight - A few clouds.

9pm: 8

 

Friday - Mainly sunny.

Morning Low: 3

Afternoon High: 16

 

Saturday - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of a shower.

Morning Low: 2

Afternoon High: 6

 

Sunday - Partly cloudy.

Morning Low: -2

Afternoon High: 5

 

Monday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -3

Afternoon High: 6

 

Tuesday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -4

Afternoon High: 2