An Alberta Clipper is moving into Saskatchewan, bringing with it rain, snow and freezing rain ahead of one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, explained it won’t be bringing a lot of precipitation with it.

“We don’t expect a lot of precipitation with it because it is moving so fast, so a couple millimetres of freezing rain or rain and maybe just a centimetre or two across the south with respect to snow.”

The system will be driven by strong winds, with gusts ranging from 40 to 60 km/h from varying directions expected over the next 48 hours.

With the freezing rain, caution is being urged on the highways across Saskatchewan. Early Friday morning, travel wasn’t recommended across a large swath of highways in the province, including the Saskatoon area, and Highway 11 north of Regina. The highways in the southeast were wet in the morning thanks to the precipitation.

Behind the clipper will be a return to seasonal temperatures for the region, which will be a significant drop from what we have been experiencing in the past few weeks. For Christmas Day, Environment Canada is calling for a high of -11°, which is just three degrees off the normal for this time of year. In contrast, on December 18th, we had a high of 5.1°, a swing of sixteen degrees in just a week.

You can get the latest details on the weather with our five-day forecast. To keep up to date on the conditions on the highways, get the latest information with the Discover Weyburn road report.