Chilly and gusty end to the week, with a chance of snow

An aerial photo of Hawrelak Park and the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton taken in mid-April 2026. (Sean McClune / CTV News Edmonton)

Cooler air is settling in over the prairies as an upper trough (cold air aloft) gets stuck in place over the next four or five days.

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

That air aloft will be cold enough to produce snow in the coming days. Heavy snow will hit northeastern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and parts of Manitoba tonight through Saturday.

A snowfall warning is in effect for the Fort McMurray region with 15 to 25 centimetres of snow tonight and Thursday (possibly a few more centimetres Friday/Saturday).

For the Edmonton region, we’ll stay cloudy through today with temperatures dropping to around 5 C by supper time.

There may be a few more showers in the area through the first half of the day, but I think the afternoon and evening should be dry. We’ll probably even get a bit of clearing this evening.

Wind will become the bigger issue today. It’ll start to pick up midday and then we’re dealing with wind NW 30 km/h gusting to 50 km/h this afternoon and early this evening.

Thursday and Friday will be gusty as well. We’ll probably have gusts in the 60 km/h range Thursday afternoon/night and Friday morning.

The wind should ease on Saturday.

Heavier, steadier rain will continue over areas south and east of Edmonton through today. East-central Alberta is under a rainfall warning. About 30 mm of rain is expected and that could lead to some localized overland flooding because of frozen ground.

Rain in that area will flip over to snow tonight turning roads into a slick and icy mess for Thursday.

The snow outlook for Edmonton and area remains a bit uncertain.

I think it’s very likely that we’ll get SOME snow Thursday evening and again Friday. Even Saturday has a chance of flurries or light snow.

I’m still not convinced we get a TONNE of accumulation. But, there may be a bit a couple centimetres stacked up over the course of that timeframe, especially on grassy surfaces.

Roads should have less accumulation, but they’ll be slick and icy, especially during the Friday morning commute.

Blowing snow will also be an issue for drivers Thursday night and through the day Friday.

Bottom line:

It’s going to be cool, cloudy and windy for the rest of the week with afternoon highs near 0 C Friday and Saturday.

Expect some snow, especially Thursday night and Friday.

Warmer air starts to move back in early next week.

Here’s the forecast for Edmonton and area:

Today - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers this morning.

Wind NW 30 gusting to 50 km/h this afternoon.

Noon: 8

6pm: 5

Tonight - Clearing this evening. Increasing cloud early Thursday morning.

Wind NW 20 gusting to 30 km/h

9pm: 2

Thursday - Mostly cloudy. 60% chance of flurries in the evening.

Wind NW 20 gusting to 40 km/h in the morning, becoming NW 30 gusting to 60 km/h in the afternoon.

Morning Low: -1

Afternoon High: 4

Friday - Cloudy. 60% chance of flurries or snow.

Wind NW 30 gusting to 60 km/h in the morning, becoming N 20 gusting to 40 km/h in the afternoon.

Morning Low: -3

Afternoon High: 0

Saturday - Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of flurries or snow.

Morning Low: -5

Afternoon High: -1

Sunday - Mostly cloudy.

Morning Low: -6

Afternoon High: 2

Monday - Mix of sun & cloud.

Morning Low: -5

Afternoon High: 6