Active weather expected for Friday, followed by a warm weekend

Summer officially began on Thursday and for the first time in five days, it actually felt like summer with a high of 20 C!

The weekend will get even warmer but before we talk about that, we need to talk about the active weather in store for southern Alberta on Friday.

Lots of sunshine is expected for the morning and early afternoon but thunderstorms are likely in Calgary after 4 p.m.

Cells will develop in the foothills in the afternoon and track toward the east.

We should have all the ingredients in place to get some severe thunderstorms.

This means gusts at 90 km/h or greater, hail two centimetres or larger, heavy downpours and even rotation is possible, which could lead to funnel clouds and tornadoes.

The areas where the storms are likely to intensify to the severe level are Calgary and south along Highway 2.

Then, these cells will track east throughout the supper hours.

A ridge of high pressure will build in for the weekend.

This promotes sinking air, stability, sunshine and hotter temperatures.