Rain, wind and snow alert issued for Southern Saskatchewan

Southern Saskatchewan residents can expect to break out the shovels once again.

Environment Canada has issued weather alerts for all of southern Saskatchewan and most of the central regions of the province.

“An Alberta clipper will bring rapidly changing weather conditions with strong winds, rain changing to snow and quickly falling temperatures to much of southern Saskatchewan on Saturday afternoon through Sunday,” Environment Canada said.

An Alberta clipper is a storm that develops on the east side of the Rocky Mountains and moves quickly, like a clipper ship on the ocean.

Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and many more are all under severe snowfall and winter storm warnings.

The clipper is expected to reduce visibility nearly to zero and bring 10 to 20 centimetres of snow, as well as a risk of freezing rain.

Heavy snow will begin to fall by Saturday afternoon, with northwest winds gusting up to 80 kilometres per hour, the Environment Canada alert said.

Environment Canada said hazardous travel conditions are forecast from Saturday afternoon into Sunday due to significantly reduced visibility as a result of falling and blowing snow.

Icy conditions will also develop as temperatures drop rapidly, causing wet surfaces to freeze by Sunday morning.

Environment Canada said people can expect the weather to improve throughout the day Sunday, as winds ease and snow gradually tapers off. However, roads and sidewalks will likely remain dangerous as temperatures drop throughout Sunday.

While the provincial highway hotline hasn’t yet posted any recommendations against travel as of 3 p.m. CST, Environment Canada warned surfaces soaked by the rain are likely to freeze, leading to hazardous road conditions.

This system is quickly followed by a second system early next week, which will bring another shot of accumulating snowfall to parts of Saskatchewan.

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