Significant drop in temperature expected on the weekend

Big drop in temperatures by the weekend. Jodi Hughes has a look at the five-day forecast from the Sky Watch Weather Centre.

For the bulk of this month, and especially the past seven days, Calgary has been experiencing unusually warm and dry weather.

Only nine of the first 27 days in January posted daily highs at or below freezing, compared to seasonal highs for the period of -3 C to -2 C.

As of Jan. 27, there has been a total of 5.2 centimetres of snow compared to the 30-year average (from 1991 to 2020) of 16.6 centimetres for the month of January.

Calgary will continue this trend of above average temperatures until the end of the month, with the highs ranging from 1 C to 9 C and lows of -2 C to -9 C.

Tuesday and Wednesday will bring more melting and pooling accompanied by more freezing overnight causing some surfaces to become icy.

The main weather-maker in the west has been a strong ridge of high pressure in the Pacific basin, enhanced by a Rex blocking pattern, a high pressure system that sits north of a low.

This Rex block has contributed to a totally different weather story out east, with colder air funnelling across Ontario and Quebec.

This will all start to break down on Wednesday as zonal flow sets up right across the country.

By the weekend, the daily highs across most of the country will likely be colder than average and, in some cases, colder than the average overnight lows.