West winds bring overnight warmup before mixed precipitation Friday

Southern Alberta will see an unusual diurnal pattern with temperatures warming up overnight.

West winds will intensify so that by the morning, Calgary can expect sustained winds around 20 km/h with gusts up to 40 km/h.

Gusts of 70 to 90 km/h are forecast for the southwest corner of the province, including Lethbridge.

Freezing rain warnings were issued for the north-central region Thursday afternoon as a low-pressure system started to move into Alberta from B.C.

Freezing rain warnings (green) issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada on Jan. 9.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the leading edge of that low included some snow, with rain and freezing rain trailing in the warm sector of this system.

Snow (white-purple) showing on radar on Jan. 9. A rain-snow mix (pink) trails behind, followed by rain (green).

As the tail end of that same warm front drags across central Alberta in the morning, light and scattered rain is possible—mainly east of the QEII corridor near Red Deer.

During the afternoon, that system will continue to cut from northwest to southeast, impacting more of southern Alberta.

Light and scattered rain will transition to snow quite quickly, coinciding with nightfall and potentially creating rapidly deteriorating conditions on surfaces like sidewalks and roadways.

Temperatures will remain warmer than average for the weekend and early next week, with overnight lows in Calgary exceeding average daytime high values at times.