Winter is about to return to southern Saskatchewan

It’s hard to believe with Friday’s warmth and sunshine, but southern Saskatchewan is about to get a nasty blast of winter.

Beginning Saturday and into Sunday, a low pressure system currently developing in Alberta will move quickly east.

The bulk of the snow will fall mostly across central Saskatchewan and the northern grain belt, hitting Saskatoon and across to the Parkland region.

But southern Saskatchewan isn’t out of the woods.

“The snow will be swinging through the southeastern corner of the province but we won’t see as much,” Environment Canada meteorologist Terry Lang said Friday. “The other issue is that we are looking at a risk of freezing rain before that snow shows up.

“Timing is always a little bit tricky with these systems but that looks like it may occur Saturday night into Sunday morning.”

Lang added it doesn’t take much to create a lot of chaos and the southeast may feel that way by the end of the weekend. The southwest will likely only see snow but everywhere will feel the effects of some strong wind gusts.

“People who are going to be out travelling this weekend should really be aware that this is going to cover a good portion of southern Saskatchewan so travel is going to be tricky through the day Saturday and Sunday especially if you look out the window and you see the sunny skies and it is really warm out (Friday),” Lang said.

“But we are in for a really big change and people should be aware of that if they are travelling this weekend.”

For the city of Regina specifically, Lang confirmed the risk of freezing rain and snow, in amounts between two and four centimetres or more than an inch.

“With the wind along, though, we are going to see a lot of blowing and drifting snow so people should have that in their minds this weekend,” Lang said.