Colder temperatures across the Prairies are expected to remain throughout the week.

Drew Lerner is the senior Agricultural Meteorologist with World Weather Inc.

"We are going to see some more winter weather ahead. We're going to get a little bit of a break here though, that's the important thing. As we go forward through this next week to week and a half, there will be an opportunity to warm up the atmosphere a little bit. One of those January thaw type environments. I don't know that we're going to go above freezing though, but we'll get away from the bitter cold perhaps. This will probably take place in waves as we go forward through the weekend and next week. Our warmest weather relative to normal will probably develop in the second half of next week."

Lerner expects snow to accompany the warmer weather, adding snowfall is expected Tuesday and Wednesday of this week with more on the way this weekend.

He notes the cold weather will return later in the month.

"I would not suggest though that we're going to stay warm. We are in an environment here where more cold weather is likely to come back into play as we get into the latter part of this month. Maybe even shortly after mid-month and we'll start seeing waves of cold air coming and going through the region again. It is only mid-winter and we do have a ways to go but we'll get a break from these extremes that we've seen recently."

Lerner says there is a lack of snow in east-central and southern Alberta, as well as central and south-west and west-central parts of Saskatchewan. This is a concern as the region is drought stricken and needs a lot of moisture heading into spring seeding. He notes snowfall has been more plentiful in Manitoba, along with eastern Saskatchewan and northern Alberta.