Josh Classen's forecast: Coldest air settles in and snow returns

Cold to start! Warm up still coming CTV Edmonton's Cory Edel has your Thursday forecast.

These next few days will be the bottom of the cold spell for the Edmonton region with temperatures several degrees colder than the past week.

Daytime highs have stayed above -15 C up to this point, but that looks like it'll change today, Friday and Saturday and mornings will be around the -20 C mark for each of the next few days.

Even colder temperatures are expected in northern and eastern Alberta, while the mountain parks continue to be rather mild.

There's been some uncertainty with the Sunday temperatures and I'm now leaning more toward us staying in the cold air. There will be some slight moderation, but afternoon temperatures probably won't get much "warmer" than -12 C to -15 C.

That said, we'll probably see some milder air start to push in Sunday night and we should climb to the -5 C range by late Monday afternoon.

The warming continues through Monday night and we're expecting temperatures to be slightly above 0 C for Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon.

There's a big upper ridge that'll move in from the west and push all the cold air out, so even eastern Alberta will get into some warmer air next week and we'll get milder conditions across the north.

Beyond Wednesday, there are some early signs we might get a disturbance rippling down the eastern edge of the ridge that could bring some heavy snow to parts of Alberta, so we'll keep an eye on it. As of right now it's just too early to have much confidence in that.

Precipitation outlook:

Northwest Alberta will get a series of "moisture punches" over the coming days and it looks like there could be some significant accumulation by the end of the weekend.

Meteorologists in ECCC's storm prediction centre are discussing the potential for 20-30 cm of snow, mainly in areas between Hinton and Grande Prairie and near the B.C. border.

Outside of that hardest-hit area, 5 to 15 cm of total snowfall looks possible for parts of the Edson/Whitecourt/Peace River areas.

The snowfall intensity should drop off as those punches of moisture move ESE. By the time they make it to the Edmonton region, we're not anticipating any massive accumulation.

That said, I think 3-10 cm of fresh snow is possible by the end of the weekend in and around the Edmonton area.

We have a chance of some flurries this evening. Then, 1-4 cm of snow is possible Friday (especially in the afternoon). The next punch comes Saturday afternoon and that could give us 1-3 cm.

Then...even Sunday has a chance of some flurries. So, cumulatively, that will likely give us somewhere in the 3-10 cm range.

Here's the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - 30% chance of flurries early this morning, then a Mix of sun & cloud.

High: -16

Tonight - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of flurries.

9pm: -17

Friday - Cloudy with periods of snow. 1 to 4 cm likely.

Morning Low: -19

Afternoon High: -16

Saturday - Cloudy. 60% chance of afternoon snow. 1 to 3 cm likely.

Morning Low: -21

Afternoon High: -17

Sunday - Cloudy. 30% chance of flurries.

Morning Low: -18

Afternoon High: -14

Monday - Mostly cloudy.

Morning Low: -15

Afternoon High: -5

Tuesday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -3

Afternoon High: 3