Who cares what the groundhogs say? It’ll feel like spring in Edmonton this week

The sun rises behind downtown Edmonton in this aerial photo taken on Jan. 8, 2025. (Cam Wiebe / CTV News Edmonton)

It’s groundhog day, and the eastern rodents (Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam) are both predicting an early spring.

That’s about as in-depth as I’m going to get with that.

• Hourly and 7-day forecast on our CTVNewsEdmonton.ca weather hub

On the meteorological side of things, it’s definitely going to FEEL like spring through this first week to 10 days of February.

Sunday’s high of -3 C could be the last sub-0 C daytime high for a while.

We’ll see what happens in the back half of February and March... but the short-term forecast has more warm weather.

January ended up with an average temperature around three degrees warmer than the long-term normal.

We’ll be about eight to 10 degrees warmer than average through the first week of February in Edmonton.

AND...Wednesday could be a record-setting day. The record high for Feb. 4 is 9.4 C (1991). I have a high of 10 C in the forecast for Wednesday.

Realistically, we could be anywhere between 8 C and 12 C for a high on Wednesday.

The ONLY signs of a slight cool down are Monday/Tuesday of next week. Even that blip doesn’t look cold. I’ve pushed the forecast highs down to 0 C, which is still above average.

Most modelling is projecting another warm-up for mid to late next week.

Bottom line: no sign of a cold spell in the first half of February.

Precipitation outlook:

Freezing rain and mixed precipitation move through central Alberta (including the Edmonton area) Sunday night.

It doesn’t look like we’ll get any precipitation in the Edmonton region through the rest of this week.

BUT...northern Alberta will get a couple waves of mixed precipitation and freezing rain in the coming days.

The first system moves through Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. The second one hits during the day Thursday. (All of that should stay well north of the Edmonton area.)

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Mix of sun & cloud.

High: 4

Tonight - Cloudy periods.

9pm: 2

Tuesday - Sunny with a few clouds.

Morning Low: -1

Afternoon High: 4

Wednesday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: 1

Afternoon High: 10

***RECORD HIGH: 9.4 in 1991

Thursday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: 3

Afternoon High: 7

Friday - Mainly sunny.

Morning Low: -2

Afternoon High: 4

Saturday - Partly cloudy.

Morning Low: -3

Afternoon High: 5