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Weather forecast leans towards White Christmas

Dec 22, 2016 | 2:00 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — While the weather outside is more on the delightful side than the frightful side, there’s a good possibility Medicine Hat will experience a White Christmas this weekend.

Environment Canada is calling for flurries to begin on Friday, and the amount of snow in the region is expected to grow on Christmas Eve.

“We have some snow moving in in the next couple days,”  said Dan Kulak, meteorologist with Environment Canada, over the phone from Edmonton on Thursday.

“Saturday, we have a 70 per cent chance of flurries in the current forecast for Medicine Hat. That could be a little bit more in the way of lighter snow, perhaps even a few centimetres, around five centimetres, is possible.”

Kulak says the snow is a result of a weather system developing from the southwest United States, which will begin moving some snow into the eastern part of the prairies later on the weekend.

Temperatures are forecast to reach a high of minus 4 degrees Celsius on Friday, and fall to minus 7 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

Kulak says the snowfall predicted for Christmas Eve is expected to taper off on Christmas Day Sunday.

“For southeastern Alberta, the greatest potential for snow in the next few days is on Christmas Eve day and Christmas Eve night, with less potential on Christmas Day itself,” he said.

The temperature on Sunday is expected to reach minus 12 degrees Celsius, according to Environment Canada, meaning the snow should stick around on Christmas Day.

“There’s no warming trend for the Christmas weekend, though once we get into the early part of next week, after Boxing Day, it looks like temperatures bounce back towards the freezing mark,” he said.

Boxing Day is forecast to be sunny and minus 9 degrees, before reaching three degrees by Tuesday and zero on Wednesday.