Shovels will be needed on Friday morning in Regina and throughout several sections of Saskatchewan with a snow advisory issued ahead of Thursday night’s snowfall activity.

A slow moving weather front that is making its way from Alberta should be settling over an area of the province tonight that stretches from North Battleford and spreads across through Saskatoon into the southern part of Saskatchewan including  the Regina, Estevan and Weyburn areas.

Meteorologist Eric Dykes from Environment Canada says the snowfall for the Regina area will begin in the afternoon, he noted that the significant snowfall amount will begin during the evening. He added the snowfall will begin to pile up beginning around 6:00 pm and we can expect to see between 10-15 cm of snow between Thursday evening until early Friday morning.

There will be some wind gusts during Thursday evening, but Dykes points out that should not be significant enough to create blowing snow issues on the highways. He noted that there would be some reduced visibility on Thursday evening, but that will be created by the snowfall itself.

Dykes added that there is potential freezing rain for the Assiniboia area on Thursday.

The snowfall is expected to begin tapering off on Friday. According to Dykes, the snow will likely end for the weekend after Friday’s activity, he did add that temperatures are expected to be below seasonal averages for this time of year during the weekend with daytime highs currently forecasted to be around -7 and -9.

Monday’s forecast is looking a little bit more promising Dykes says, as the day time high is currently projected to be -3.