Rain today, snow returns Friday

An aerial image of downtown Edmonton the morning of Dec. 3, 2024. (Cam Wiebe / CTV News Edmonton)

We’re into the last day of winter and the last day of the warm spell for Edmonton and area.

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

Temperatures should get into double digits for the third consecutive afternoon, but there’s a BIG shift in the weather pattern coming.

The upper ridge (bubble of warm air aloft) that’s been sitting over Alberta these past few days will flatten out as some colder air pushes south.

That cooling at the surface will drop daytime highs to the 0 to 5 C range. So, not SUPER cold... just cooler.

The bigger issue is that the colder air aloft will flip the precipitation over from rain to snow and we could be in for a lot of snow Friday.

It’s all still rain today as a band of precipitation sits over the Highway 16 corridor from Edson all the way to the Saskatchewan border.

That’s giving us showers and pockets of heavier rain through this morning, which should taper off midday in the Edmonton area.

We’ll get a bit of a break early this afternoon and then another wave of precipitation moves through north-central Alberta around supper time.

That might initially start as rain. But, it’ll flip to snow at some point this evening.

Heavy snow is likely for western and northwestern Alberta with 10-20 cm expected for areas from Grande Cache/Whitecourt south through Hinton/Edson and down towards Drayton Valley and Nordegg.

Some spots could see more than 20 cm. Don’t be surprised if we see snowfall warnings issued.

Estimating snow totals gets a little trickier as you head further east. There’s a wide range of possibilities for the Edmonton area.

Snowiest-case scenario: We wake up with a bit of fresh snow on the ground Friday and pick up another 10ish centimetres that afternoon and evening (total accum in the 10-15cm range).

Least-snowy scenario: Snow continues to melt on contact for a while before accumulating and the heavier pockets stay just north of the city. In this case, we’d end up with just 2 or 3 cm of accumulation by the end of the day.

I think we’ll probably end up somewhere between those two extremes. If I had to bet, I’d go with somewhere between 5-8 cm of accumulation, mainly on snow-covered and/or lower-traffic areas.

We should see less accumulation on roadways (especially the main ones), where it’ll be more slushy and sloppy.

Bottom line: It’ll be wet and warm today, but snowy for the start of spring on Friday.

The afternoon/evening commute Friday will probably be a MESS.

Oh... and just as a capper: It’ll be gusty tomorrow, too.

Looking ahead to the weekend:

Afternoon temperatures a couple degrees above 0 C and mornings in the -5 to -10 C range.

Edmonton and area gets some sunny breaks.

More snow for western and northeastern Alberta Saturday. Northwestern Alberta gets some more snow Sunday.

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Rain ending midday. Cloudy with some sunny breaks early this afternoon.

60% chance of showers late this afternoon.

High: 10

Tonight - Cloudy. 70% chance of rain turning to snow this evening and overnight.

Friday - SPRING EQUINOX.

Cloudy with periods of snow, heaviest through the afternoon. 3-15cm possible.

Wind gusting to 40 km/h.

Morning Low: 1

Afternoon High: 2

Saturday - Cloudy with a 30% chance of snow in the morning. Afternoon sunny breaks.

Morning Low: -5

Afternoon High: 2

Sunday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -7

Afternoon High: 5

Monday - Partly cloudy.

Morning Low: -5

Afternoon High: 3

Tuesday - Mostly cloudy.

Morning Low: -6

Afternoon High: 1