Those planning on traveling longer distances later today will want to monitor weather and highway conditions.

We’ll have above normal temperatures today (Thursday) followed by a lengthy cold snap that could last until the New Year.

A cold weather mass will push the warmer air out of the province, generating snow and blowing snow.

Terri Lang is a meteorologist with Environment Canada in Saskatoon and she says because there will be fresh snow falling, there will likely be blowing snow because winds will be gusting to 60 to 70 kilometres an hour in some regions.  In addition, the temperature is rising today which she says can make the roads very slippery, very quickly.

The cold weather starts tomorrow (Friday) and could run right through the new year. Lang expects a few of those days will have severe cold advisories.

There is a heavy snowfall warning in effect for some parts of northern Saskatchewan as of Thursday morning including:
Candle Lake Prov. Park and Narrow Hills Prov. Park; Hwy 165 between highways 2 and 914 including Pinehouse Lake; Lac la Ronge Prov. Park including La Ronge; Prince Albert National Park, Buffalo Narrows, Montreal Lake, Peter Pond Lake, Île à la Crosse and Beauval.

Those areas can expect heavy snowfall continuing until Friday morning, with total amounts of 10 to 15 cm.