An Alberta Clipper is making its way through Waterloo region and Guelph Friday and that has prompted Environment and Climate Change Canada to issue two yellow-level weather warnings for blowing snow and cold temperatures.

The weather agency says between four to eight centimetres of snow is expected to fall through out the day on Friday, but strong winds in the afternoon could cause that snow to blow over roads and sidewalks, make for a messy evening commute.

Winds are expected to gust anywhere from 70 to 80 km/h, causing near-zero visibility due to the blowing snow. The blowing snow advisory is anticipated to last into Saturday morning.

“It could actually make conditions quite dangerous on the roads at times and especially given how cold it is, you don’t really want to be caught off guard,” Monica Vaswani, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, told CBC News.

Vaswani said as the Alberta Clipper moves through the region, extreme cold temperatures will follow it and persist overnight and into the weekend.

“It looks like our wind chill values [Friday] could actually be in around the –30 C mark, maybe even as cold as –33 C Sunday morning,” she said.

Saturday is expected to be mainly sunny with a high of –15 C and an overnight low of –25 C. Sunday’s high is expected to linger at –10 C with an overnight low of –22C.

The cold weather warning noted people at the most risk of developing complications due to the cold include young children, older adults, people with chronic illnesses, people working or exercising outdoors and people without proper shelter.

“Watch for cold-related symptoms: shortness of breath, chest pain, muscle pain and weakness, numbness and colour change in fingers and toes,” the weather warning said.

“Cover up. Frostbite can develop within minutes on exposed skin, especially with wind chill.”

Temperatures are expected to warm up next week, hovering at around the freezing mark.