Our landscape could change considerably this week. Environment Canada is calling for a pair of low pressure systems to hit the region.

Sara Hoffman says there is currently a low pressure system in Montana, near the North Dakota border. She explains there is a precipitation shield that extends into southern Saskatchewan and will continue to progress east. Hoffman says most of the heavy snow and strong winds will stay south of the Canada/U.S. border, but southeastern Manitoba will not escape this first blast of winter.

Light and fluffy snow should begin this afternoon with wind from the southeast gusting to 40 kilometres per hour. By the time the system passes through on Wednesday afternoon, Hoffman says up to five centimetres of the white stuff could fall.

For many Manitobans, last October's snowstorm probably still evokes memories of broken tree limbs and snapped hydro poles. Hoffman says not only will we receive considerably less snow today, but it is also not expected to be of the wet and heavy variety.

It is anticipated that areas south of the border will experience much more winter-like conditions today. In fact, the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for areas around Fargo, North Dakota where more than 12 centimetres of snow could fall, along with freezing rain.

Then on Thursday, a Wyoming low is expected to push into Manitoba, dropping an additional two to four centimetres of snow.

Meanwhile, Hoffman says there is no end in sight to the below normal temperatures we have been experiencing for more than a week now. She notes this trend will continue until Sunday for all of western Canada, including northwest Ontario. But, next week, the daily high is still expected to be four to six degrees below normal, which means an unseasonably cold Halloween this year. The normal high for October 20th is 9 degrees.