Southern Manitoba is about to see an abrupt change in weather. A special weather statement has been issued by Environment Canada as the first winter storm of the season approaches our province.

Environment Canada is calling for sunshine on Tuesday with a high of about 10 degrees for the southern half of the province. But, then things change. The sunny sky and mild temperatures will give way to increasing clouds tonight.

Parts of the province will wake up Wednesday morning to rain and in some cases freezing rain.

"It'll start out as rain towards maybe noontime on Wednesday," says Meteorologist Terri Laing. "But then we're expecting a change to snow. And it will continue to snow through the day Thursday and probably even into Friday."

Steinbach is expected to receive between five and 10 millimetres of rain before the precipitation starts turning to snow. Wednesday will be a messy day, with a rain/snow mix over much of the region.

Environment Canada says air and ground temperatures a bit above zero should limit snowfall accumulation during the day on Wednesday, however colder air wrapping into the system late in the day will change the precipitation completely over to snow, and accumulating snow is expected to continue through Thursday. By Thursday evening it will become windy causing local blowing snow.

Widespread snowfall accumulations of 10 to 20 centimetres are expected by Friday morning, with greater amounts over higher terrain and in localized areas downwind of the Manitoba lakes, which are expected to enhance snowfall amounts. The greatest accumulations will be over the higher terrain in the Parklands region of western Manitoba, where 50 centimetres is possible by Friday morning. A winter storm watch has been issued for this region.

"It does look like there's a good bunch of snow coming," says Laing. "I would caution people, now you've got a couple of days. If you haven't got the snow tires on, put the snow tires on. If you don't know where your shovels are, get your shovels out. Get the kid's winter boots out. All that kind of stuff."

After the system passes on Friday, we can expect temperatures that are slightly below normal for the weekend with partly cloudy conditions.

Map last updated Tuesday at 8:45 am.