Snow in May isn't unheard of in Saskatchewan, but that doesn't mean we have to be happy to see it. A report from Environment Canada suggests that while Estevan isn't getting the full brunt of a snowy system moving in, we are going to catch the tail edge of it. 

"Luckily, Estevan is sort of on the edge of the weather system itself," said regional meteorologist Terri Lang. "The precipitation that's coming through, that's going to be this evening, tonight, and into tomorrow morning should mostly fall as rain in the Estevan area, but we do see it changing to snow in the early morning hours."

Lang added that the warmer ground and small amounts of snow mean you won't likely have to break out the shovel, and if you sleep in late you might not even see any snow at all. But if you're traveling north, you might run into more extreme weather.

"Areas sort of to the north and to the east will be harder hit," Lang said. "We're looking more like five to ten centimeters possibly in that sort of Yorkton area. But certainly, no snow is welcome at this point."

Still, Lang mentioned in a sense Estevan will be getting off lightly. In addition to the snow north of us into the Yorkton and Melville area, across the border to the east Manitoba is dealing with record low temperatures for this time of year.   

"We do have this big ridge of high pressure from the Arctic, that's sitting over Manitoba," said Lang. "They had some record-setting cold temperatures this morning. So that's what's feeding into this low-pressure system that's coming down from Alberta. So you combine those two along that edge, and that's how you get that wet snow." 

Better news comes closer to May Long weekend. The cold snap will carry into early next week according to Lang, but throughout the week the temperatures rise back to normal or even above average.

"We should see," said Lang. "It looks at this time like the models are indicating a nice weekend for the long weekend. Not that we can go anywhere for it but at least we can maybe sit in our backyards and appreciate the flowers blooming and the trees coming to leaf."

On the note of flowers, Lang added if you're planning on planting things in your garden anytime soon, you're better off waiting until after this weekend. She also said that, this cold snap excepted, the long-range forecasts show a warmer than average May.