Strong winds mean blowing and drifting snow are coming to the Prairies.

Winter certainly has its grip across the Prairie provinces. We saw over 5 centimeters of snowfall in southern Alberta, including Calgary, and now by Wednesday early morning we’re going to be seeing a swath of snow with this low pressure system that’s going to be moving eastward, and with it a cold front will really not only drop the temperatures, but bring in a strong northerly wind. Wind gusts in excess of maybe 60 kilometer kmh are possible. Plus we’ve got rain, so it’ll be mostly rain before it’s switching over to snow. And the heaviest rain will be in parts of Manitoba, Winnipeg up for 20 to 30mm of rainfall at a time when we’re watching because it’s spring, the chance for flooding, particularly along the Assiniboine River. So basically from Russell all the way down to Brandon where you see the red is a flood warning that was issued in the last 24 hours. This is because of sort of an abrupt warm up as of late, melting the snow that they did have. And then of course we’ve got more snow coming, not a ton down that way, but then the rain that will be coming. Let’s hope this all plays out well, but we’re going to watch it closely. 20 to 40 centimeters of snow for Thompson, Manitoba and the paw upwards to 25 as possible. I mentioned that strong northerly wind that will wrap around the center of that low pressure. Yeah, Saskatoon could see wind gusts throughout the day Wednesday and overnight as high as 70 kilometers an hour. So blowing and drifting is almost a given. The roadways, particularly along the highways, could be dicey, so take it easy out there. How normal is it to get snow in April? Well, Saskatoon usually get about 8 centimeters. Regina, 7, Winnipeg and Brandon somewhere between 8:00 and 11:00. And our wind chills, Yes, wind chills will be returning not so bad on Wednesday, but it’s Thursday. We really start to see the wind chills in the minus double digits again.