Frostbite risk most of today, then heavy blowing snow tomorrow

Bitter cold hangs over the region today before tomorrow's expected blowing snow hits.

There's a serious risk of frostbite across the region this morning, with temperatures at 6 a.m. of:

• -24 C in Maniwaki, with wind chill making it feel like -28.
• -22 C in Pembroke, with wind chill making it feel like -28.
• -20 C in Ottawa, with wind chill making it feel like -32.
• -19 C in Cornwall, with wind chill making it feel like -27.
• -18 C in Kingston, with wind chill making it feel like -27.

Ottawa is on its way up to a high of -14 C by late afternoon, with wind chill that should make it feel about -20 at its best.

We're back into conditions that make it dangerous to be out with exposed skin for long from well before midnight into tomorrow morning.

It fits with the data that suggests this time of year is when Ottawa tends to get its coldest.

• Dead of winter dead ahead for Ottawa

Saturday's story is more snow than the cold, though it's only expected to get up to -12 C with wind chill making it feel like -17.

That wind will also be tugging potentially heavy snow along with it.

Environment Canada has a special weather statement about the snow and wind for pretty much the entire province of Ontario and a lot of southern Quebec.

For our region, it says to expect snow in the Belleville and Kingston area before noon and in Ottawa-Gatineauright around 12 p.m.

Maniwakiand Cornwallmay be the last parts of the region to start getting the flakes.

15 to 25 cm of snow

Kingston should get 10 to 15 centimetres of snow before nightfall, with more on the way overnight, and winds gusting up to 40 km/h.

The capital and Pembroke area should get five to 10 centimetres during the day, with slightly weaker winds.

Maniwaki and Cornwall should get about five centimetres.

We don't yet know exactly how much it's forecasting will fall overnight, but a total of15 to 25 centimetres is their big-picture estimate for eastern Ontario.

• 15 to 25 centimetres of snow expected to fall this weekend

Saturday night's low in Ottawa is -13 C with details still to come on the expected wind chill.

In Kingston, it's going up to near zero until Sunday evening, meaning there could be some rain mixed with the snow overnight.

The precipitationshouldpeter out to flurries on Sunday morning, with a high of -8 C and overnight low of -16 C in Ottawa that's right around average for this time of the month.

It's looking like it could be a sunny, chilly start to the next workweek.