The weather is going to take a turn for the worse tonight in southern Manitoba.

"Portage la Prairie has already had showers throughout the day, we've had rain showers everywhere around southern Manitoba this morning," says Warning Preparedness Meteorologist with Environment Canada Natalie Hasell. "Right now in our forecast as the low-pressure system shifts to the northeast of southern Manitoba, we will see our wind regime change. Winds will come out of the west and north-west, that will usher in the cold air, and the rain showers will change to snow this evening. We're also going to see our winds increase, they weren't particularly strong in Portage this afternoon, but we will see them increase to 50 or 70 kilometres an hour this evening. The winds won't be considered severe at those strengths, however, the combination of snow and strong winds does lead to blowing snow, so visibility will be reduced."

Hasell says the blowing snow will continue into Tuesday. "It should eventually taper off tomorrow night, or even maybe as late as Wednesday morning. The problem is we've got this low-pressure system staying with us for a couple of days, so the winds will be from the north and we'll have nothing to stop that cold air from coming all the way down to southern Manitoba and beyond. We'll see some rather cold conditions later this week, especially under clear skies. Thursday will have a high of minus 17, and a low of minus 25, and that's temperature without a windchill."

The temperatures we'll see later this week will be well below normal according to Hasel. We've actually been closer to normal over the last couple of days in Manitoba. "Our mathematical average gives us a minus three during the day, and minus 12 at night. Certainly Thursday, Friday, and maybe even parts of Saturday are well below normal temperatures."

She adds stay off the roads if you can, and if you have to drive anywhere, have an emergency kit on hand.