Winter weather has been hanging around the province as the calendar turns to March.

Blowing snow and wind chill values have dropped temperatures into the mid minus-20 range.

A warming period is in store for the first weekend of the month, however, the mercury won't rise significantly, according to Meteorologist John Paul Cragg.

"Since we're not so cold, it won't be that much of a drastic warm-up. There are some areas of low pressure that will be passing across the province."

On the low pressure, Cragg notes that fluctuating temperatures are brought about by the wind.

"As is always the case in advance of those lows, we get southerly winds bringing in some warm air and on the back end, we get northerly winds bringing in cold air."

Following the brief period of temperatures at or above zero on Friday and Saturday, Cragg says conditions should normalize for the first half of the month.

"It looks like for the first two months of March, we will see temperatures around the average or a little bit above the average."

The average for east-central Saskatchewan in the beginning of March is highs of -6 and lows of -16.