Sunny start to Friday, but it’s a weekend filled with active weather

Temperatures on Friday and Saturday will be on the low side of seasonal, and it seems our chances of rain only intensify for Monday and Tuesday.

Calgary got another big dose of precipitation on Thursday afternoon.

As of 3 p.m., Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) told CTV Calgary the city recorded 26 millimetres of rain over the previous 24 hours, with 51.6 millimetres for the month of July so far!

Rainfall total for the entire month of July in Calgary is usually 65.7 millimetres, so there’s a good chance we’ll meet or exceed that average value this month!

In fact, we might even hit that mark this weekend, with several rounds of wet weather expected.

We will get some good clearing on Thursday night, which will cool our temperature to a low of 9 C, but also set the stage for a sunny Friday morning.

Another upper low-pressure system is developing in central B.C. and we will start to see the first glimpses of that system late in the afternoon and into the evening.

The Friday storm outlook issued by ECCC shows Calgary and many regions to the west in a moderate-risk zone for active weather, with the potential for 90 km/h winds, two-to-five-centimetre hailstones and 20 to 30 millimetres of rainfall.

It’s an even more severe setup for parts of the extreme south, including Lethbridge, where convective energy could be strong enough for the development of tornadoes.

This outlook should be considered the worst-case scenario and used as a tool to help you prepare.

It can be a challenge for models to determine exactly what is going to happen and when with so many variables to consider, and so far, there is inconsistency when it comes to storm severity for Friday.

There is agreement that the next three days have strong potential for isolated thunderstorms throughout southern Alberta, thanks in part to a large dome of high pressure over the Pacific Ocean (known as the North Pacific or Hawaiian High) that is keeping our jet stream locked in an upper low-pressure trough over Alberta.

Because of this, temperatures on Friday and Saturday will be on the low side of the seasonal range, and heading into next week, it seems our chances of rain only intensify for Monday and Tuesday.