Heavy, blowing snow coming for southern Manitoba: Environment Canada

Bring out your snow shovels.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather bulletin for the southern half of Manitoba in response to a forecasted dump of snow coupled with strong winds.

Between 10 to 15 centimetres of snow isexpected on Monday night into Tuesday, according to James Colangelo, a meteorologist with the weather agency.

An Alberta clipper will move across the Prairies on Monday night, travelling from eastern Saskatchewan southeastward to Lake of the Woods. The heaviest snowfall will be in the Parkland Region of Manitoba, much of the Red River Valley including Winnipeg and theWhiteshell.

But that's not all.

"On the back side of the system, we could see some very strong northwesterly winds, so with those winds combined with the fallen snow that's happened, we could see some widespread blowing snow conditions for late Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday overnight," Colangelo said.

"Travel willprobably not be advised during this time period because there could be gusts of up to 70 kilometres per hour in the Red River Valley that could potentially cause some issues for travel and some reduced visibility."

Conditions will improve by Wednesday morning as winds taper off, but followingthat system, another surge of Arctic air will move into the Prairies.

Overnight lows will drop to near 30C midweek, then milder temperatures will return to the region for the end of the week, the bulletin says.

The special weather bulletin covers the following areas:

• Arborg, Hecla, Fisher River,Gypsumville,Ashern.
• Berens River, Little Grand Rapids,Bloodvein, Atikaki.
• Bissett, Victoria Beach,Nopiming Provincial Park, Pine Falls.
• Brandon,Neepawa,Carberry,Treherne.
• City of Winnipeg.
• Dauphin, Russell, Roblin,Winnipegosis.
• Dugald, Beausejour, Grand Beach.
• Grand Rapids, Waterhen.
• Killarney, Pilot Mound, Manitou.
• Melita,Boissevain,Turtle Mountain Provincial Park.
• Minnedosa,Riding Mountain National Park.
• Morden, Winkler, Altona,Morris.
• Poplar River.
• Portage la Prairie,Headingley, Brunkild, Carman.
• Selkirk,Gimli, Stonewall, Woodlands.
• Sprague,Northwest Angle Provincial Forest.
• Ste. Rose,McCreary, Alonsa, Gladstone.
• Steinbach, St. Adolphe,Emerson, Vita, Richer.
• Swan River,Duck Mountain, Porcupine Provincial Forest.
• Virden, Souris.
• Whiteshell,Lac du Bonnet,Pinawa.