Winter weather alerts issued for northern and southern Sask.

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The Land of Living Skies is living up to its nickname with a vengeance this weekend, with storm clouds spitting freezing rain over some parts of the province and dumping up to half a metre of snow on others.

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So far, the hardest-hit communities are clustered in southwestern Saskatchewan near the province’s borders with Alberta and the United States, with overlapping weather alerts covering the Eastend-Maple Creek-Cypress Hills area.

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Environment Canada says “a long period of snowfall” is expected in this area over the weekend, and people should be preparing to dig themselves out of up to “30 to 50 cm” of accumulated snow by Monday morning.

On Saturday afternoon, the Saskatchewan RCMP said it was responding to multiple “weather-related collisions and incidents throughout southeast and south central Saskatchewan due to snowy and icy conditions.”

As the winter weather continued, the RCMP asked drivers to avoid the eastbound lanes of Highway #1 between Rush Lake and Chaplin because of semis blocking lanes, and warned of similar delays on the northbound stretch of Highway #11 near Kenaston.

The RCMP also offered some safety tips for drivers stranded or stopped at the roadside, including pulling over to the right shoulder and away from intersections if reasonably possible, staying with your vehicle, keeping the tailpipe clear of ice and snow, and periodically turning the vehicle on for heat as well as slightly lowering a window on the downwind side for fresh air.

This follows a Saskatchewan RCMP advisory on Friday night, alerting drivers in southwest Saskatchewan to the dangers of ice and freezing rain on Highways #7, #14, #21 and #51 near Kindersley, Unity, Kerrobert and Macklin.

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“Before travelling, check the weather and road conditions (and) consider delaying travel if possible,” the RCMP suggested.

As of Saturday morning, the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline still reported covered roads and reduced visibility across significant swathes of the province’s southern and south-central highway system, with most routes to the Alberta border south of Kindersley flagged as “not recommended” due to ice, swirling snow and low-to-no visibility.

Meanwhile, in far northern Saskatchewan, residents of the Wollaston Lake-Collins Bay area woke up on Saturday morning to an extreme cold warning as temperatures plunged below minus 40 with wind chill.

“Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia,” Environment Canada said in its weather alert.

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