Warnings issued as heavy snow blows into Saskatchewan

Areas in central and southeast Saskatchewan were under snowfall and winter storm warnings Friday.

Lead forecaster Brad Vrolijk with Environment Canada told 650 CKOM it was looking like a snowy, cold weekend ahead.

About five centimetres of snow was expected through the day Friday in Saskatoon and the surrounding area, tapering off briefly in the afternoon.

Vrolijk said the snowfall was expected to pick  up again Friday evening and carry on overnight and into Saturday afternoon.

“So by the time all is said and done, probably 15 to 20 cm will have fallen over the course of the next two days,” he said.

The forecast was a bit grimmer for areas to the east and southeast of Saskatoon, including Humboldt, Kamsack and Yorkton.

Those areas were under winter storm warnings by about 5 a.m. Friday. Vrolijk said they could see as much as 30 cm of snow to have fallen by Saturday afternoon.

“They’ll have a little more wind and blowing snow as well, so conditions will be a little worse to the southeast,” he said.

Along with the snow, temperatures were expected to dip to around -20 C by Friday night, with a daytime high of -18 C Saturday.

Vrolijk said  an Arctic air mass would be coming in behind the snow, pushing overnight lows to the -30 C range Saturday in Saskatoon.

The cold is then expected to linger into next week.

Regina’s daytime high for Friday is predicted to be -9 C.

The low is expected to be -16 C, with a wind chill value of -24 C, which isn’t expected until 8 p.m.