Photo: Shaun Penner

By Shaun Penner

Forecast for May long

Warm start, cool finish for May long in Grande Prairie

May 15, 2020 | 5:30 AM

What looks to be a warm start to the long weekend is not expected to finish out the same way.

Weather Network meteorologist Doug Gillham says, for the Grande Prairie area, Saturday looks to be the best day to enjoy the outdoors, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures floating around 20 degrees.

“Then a system will be approaching on Sunday and that will bring cloudy skies and an increasing threat for showers as we go through the day,” said Gillham.

“Then on Monday, a cool day with a threat for showers. Not a total washout, but with temperatures running several degrees below seasonal.”

As of Friday morning, the Weather Network is calling for daytime highs of 11 degrees for Sunday and 13 degrees for Monday in Grande Prairie, with a high chance of rain on both days.

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Gillham says that downward trend in temperatures is fairly unique to the Peace region, as most of Alberta will get to enjoy a rather warm long weekend.

“While the Grande Prairie area will see temperatures trending down as we go through the weekend, southern Alberta, especially down toward Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, will be trending up. We’ll be seeing temperatures climbing up to the mid and even upper 20s.”

While the unofficial start to summer here in the Swan City may not be as warm as other parts of the province, Gillham recalls that it still beats out the May long from 2016 here in the Peace country.

“We had significant snowfall right before the start of the long weekend. We went into Friday of the long weekend with snow on the ground,” said Gillham. “It quickly melted, but temperatures were rather chilly.”

Gillham says temperatures should level out to a more seasonal average by Tuesday.