After nearly a month and a half of below seasonal temperatures, Airdrie finally broke out of our prolonged cold snap on Monday and you could see the relief on the faces of most Airdronians as their grimaces turned into smiles.  

Warmer days are ahead with seven degrees forecast for Saturday and Sunday, then jumping to 13 for Monday and a whopping 15 degrees for Tuesday.

But just before you dig out the patio furniture from the remaining snow, a word of caution from a Meteorologist with Environment Canada.  This is Alberta, it is March and the business of weather forecasting is an imprecise science.

But first, though, Robin Dyck explains what's happening with the weather pattern.  She says, "What we have is a building upper ridge, so that's the upper pattern of the atmosphere. When that happens, that just happens to funnel in the warm moist air from the ocean and the west coast.  Out temperatures for the next few days for Airdrie are warming up.  We have for tomorrow a high of plus three and that's normal for this time of year.  The extended forecast says some high sevens are in there and looking into next week some 15's are in there."

Sounds great, right?  Not so fast, says Dyck.  "The further out you look, there's actually very low confidence in that forecast.  Things can change really drastically in even a day.   I would be recommending to people at this time is looking at just the day or two-day forecast.  I know everyone wants to know what the temperature is this weekend but, best to just look a couple days out.  The trend is warming up and that's the thing to take from this.  Things are warming up."

Dyck says she expects the upper ridge to be around until at least Saturday, so we should stay on the warmer side of normal until at least then.  "Whether it's going to be five or 15," says Dyck, "we probably won't be able to say exactly but people can expect for that above normal for at least the next few days."

Although Dyck says they can't forecast exactly what's going to happen outside of a few days, Environment Canada does have a long-range forecast in their toolbox which she says may also contain more disappointing news.

"This is for like March, April, May.  They're actually calling for the below normal side of things," Dyck explains.  

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