Heat wave update: Warning set to continue into the weekend, temperature records likely

Temperatures have shot up to possibly 30 today, and low 30 highs and mid teen lows are expected for the rest of the week.

First off, the heat warning. A special weather statement is in affect for most of Alberta, but actually not a heat warning. The only area that has a heat warning is the Edmonton area. Why is this? Pretty much, for a heat warning, we need a high of 29 or above AND a low of 14 or above. Because lows are warmer in cities, Edmonton has just barely warm enough lows for a heat warning, but rural areas don’t. Calgary also doesn’t, because in southern Alberta they have higher criteria for a heat warning, but they are getting only around the same temperatures as us.

Next, records. For this, I’m going to show you two tables. One for highs, one for lows. The Weather Network has been extremely underestimating heat waves this summer, for some reason, so it’s not even on here because at this point it’s basically defunct (It’s been over 3 degrees below AccuWeather and Environment Canada for highs during heat waves since the start of June over a third of the time).

Overall, for high records, I’d say Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are most likely, and for low records, Thursday is the most likely.

That’s it for the update! There might be another one later this week, but not for sure. What is coming later this week is both a medium- and long-range forecast!