Alberta, you can serve turkey comfortably outdoors this Thanksgiving Monday. About 1.5 million residents of Alberta will experience a temperature above 20°C.
A ridge of high pressure is towering over parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, bringing above-seasonal temperatures to much of the region. Temperatures will remain high through Wednesday before plummeting back down to seasonal temperatures which will feel like quite the reality shock after balmy temperatures.
Those in the Rockies and and the foothills, will feel some downslopping winds on Monday. Gusts up to 60 km/h will be felt across southwestern Alberta.
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Some of the warmest communities in Alberta for Monday, Oct. 14, see if your community won the outdoor Thanksgiving temperature jackpot:
Lethbridge: 25°C Medicine Hat: 25°C Taber: 25°C Brooks: 24°C Calgary: 23°C Strathmore: 23°C Okotoks: 22°C High River: 22°C Pincher Creek: 22°C
Some of these communities are over 10°C above climate normals, the most extreme being Medicine Hat +11°C and Brooks +11°C above long-term average temperatures. Although it’s well above seasonal, none of the communities listed above will be challenging daily records for Oct. 14.
And we certainly won’t be challenging the coldest temperatures for Oct. 14, where Calgary reached -15.6°C back in 1899. The most recent chilly high occurred in 2009 when the temperature topped out at -0.3°C.
Looking ahead, the warm temperatures will be hanging by a thread on Wednesday, with highs in the upper teens. Thursday and Friday will be a return to seasonal temperatures with even a hint of mixed precipitation in higher elevations. Calgary and Edmonton will struggle to hit double digit temperatures.
There is the potential to see another burst of above-seasonal temperatures next weekend, so keep checking back as we continue to nail down the forecast.
Check back in with The Weather Network for more forecast updates across the Prairies