Snow and freezing rain to hit Regina and Saskatoon

Drivers are being urged to monitor the Highway Hotline before travelling Wednesday night, because snow is expected to fall in Regina and Saskatoon overnight.

To make matters even more complicated, that snow has a strong chance of turning into freezing rain.

In Regina, temperatures will rise above 0 C throughout the night, meaning the snow will likely turn into rain. Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said that likely will happen Thursday morning.

“Saskatoon has a similar outlook; it’s just the timing will be a little bit quicker,” she said. “They’ll probably see the rain or the snow changing to rain overnight, closer to midnight (Wednesday).”

Lang also said there will be wind snaps in the northwest area of Saskatchewan.

“We could see some fairly good gusts upwards of 70 to 80 kilometres per hour, but because the temperatures will be above freezing, I don’t think we’ll see that much in the way of blowing snow,” she said.

“We are expecting more snow the farther north you go, upwards of eight centimetres or so.”

Though the weather has been fairly pleasant recently, Lang said things will be getting a lot colder starting Friday due to a big push of arctic air.

She said the temperature drop will carry over into next week.

“It’s going to be cold. I wouldn’t call it extremely cold. It’s winter, it’s February (and) it’s the prairies, so we’re not expecting outrageously cold temperatures,” Lang said.

“It’s just going to feel a lot colder. It’ll be below-average temperatures, but certainly not exceptionally cold.”