Winter storm causes visibility issues, slippery conditions in southern Sask.

Winter weather pummelled parts of central and southern Saskatchewan on Thursday morning.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a snowfall warning for a band stretching from Leader to Estevan.

Meteorologist with Environment Canada, Keane Kokolsky, said the system was expected to bring 15-20 centimetres of snow.

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“It’s already started to move in,” he said. “We’re anticipating (it) to continue for most of the day. It’ll be continuing to make its way off to the southeast.”

Kokolsky said the weather would bring strong winds gusting up to 70 kilometres an hour.

The snow and wind caused issues on the roads for drivers on Thursday.

The Highway Hotline showed a large part of Highway 1 is closed around Swift Current. Travel is not recommended on many roads around the area, while other roads are snow covered.

The system should fully exit the province by Thursday evening.

Regina is not currently included in the snowfall warning, but Kokolsky said that could change later in the morning.

He said if there is a slight northern wind, it could push the system up to cover Regina.

“What we’re seeing on radar right now looks like the southern trend will be more favoured, which lines up where we have the snowfall warning at the moment,” Kokolsky said.

Regina will still see around 5-7 cm of snow.

Kokolsky said a wind warning promising gusts up to at least 90 km/h is posted for a small corner of the southwest part of the province.

He said the strong winds will be short-lived and will stop blowing early Thursday afternoon.

“The risk is very marginal, we don’t think it’s going to be widespread or very impactful,” Kokolsky said.

A fog advisory spanned from Fort Qu’Appelle to Prince Albert and Martinsville. The advisory is expected to lift as the sun burns off the fog on Thursday morning.