Heat warnings and storm risks in southern Alberta on Friday

CALGARY -

A pair of merging lows begin their eastward journey across the northern prairies on Friday, prompting a similar state to Thursday's article title.

Their passage, coupled with a weak upper low over Vancouver Island, may drive sporadic showers into the Calgary area, predominantly Sunday and Monday.

How sporadic?

Early model progs this week were calling for 10-15 millimetres. Now, we're optimistically down to trace amounts, with the potential for mere cloud layering instead. The link above also contains drought parameters, for those wondering how significant this lack of moisture has been.

Let's bring it forward to today: the lower atmosphere is rife with storm triggers. The troughs, the fronts, these surface lows, the destabilization and dismantling of the high over us – our atmosphere will be equipped to generate severe weather in parts of our province.

Calgary isn't exempt, but again holds steady in that "development zone" – that is to say, storm growth may happen in our region, but storm maturity is more likely east of us.

The major threats will be hail and strong wind, especially in the southeast and northern reaches of the province.

I mentioned the falling-away of the ridge we've been coping with for a while – at the moment, it persists to drive our temperature into continued heat warning territory. On Saturday, heat warnings will continue in southeastern Alberta, but Calgary's will have cleared.

In spite of that, here again is a reminder that it's best to leave the pets at home in lieu of a car ride on a day like today:

Your five-day:

Friday

• Partly cloudy, afternoon shower potential, storm risk
• Daytime high: 30 C
• Evening: some cloud, low 12 C

Saturday

• Some cloud
• Daytime high: 24 C
• Evening: some cloud, low 12 C

Sunday

• Scattered shower potential
• Daytime high: 18 C
• Evening: cloudy, low 11 C

Monday

• Scattered shower potential
• Daytime high: 22 C
• Evening: clear, low 15 C

Tuesday

• Partly cloudy
• Daytime high: 27 C
• Evening: showers, low 13 C

Our pic picks of the day: Marni took a hike near Boom Lake:

And Wayne caught a nice sky-shot, too!

You can submit your weather photos here, or email me: Kevin Stanfield, OR you can just tweetat me.