SARANAC LAKE — Moderate snow will make a return to the Tri-Lakes region tonight, followed by much colder weather later Saturday and Sunday before the tables turn for next week.

A clipper system — a fast-moving area of low pressure originating in western Canada and forecasted to track eastward over the Great Lakes before reaching the local area — is expected to impact the Tri-Lakes beginning tonight.

The National Weather Service’s Burlington, Vermont office, which serves the Tri-Lakes area, issued a winter weather advisory for Franklin and western Essex counties for the upcoming snowstorm, with accumulations between 3 and 7 inches expected.

The advisory is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. today and remain in effect until 7 p.m. Saturday, with the steadiest snow expected to fall between 8 p.m. tonight through early Saturday morning, according to NWS Burlington Meteorologist Tyler Danzig.

The snow is expected to become more scattered and intermittent by Saturday morning, with temperatures falling throughout the day as the system exits. A frigid pool of air is expected in its wake, according to Danzig.

“We’re expecting our winds to shift to the northwest, which will draw in a lot colder air,” he said. “We’ll be about 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit below normal for Saturday night through Sunday.”

Overnight temperatures both Saturday night and Sunday night are expected to dip below zero, with high temperatures during the daytime on Sunday not expected to make it beyond the single digits.

Danzig said a silver lining with the weekend cold is that while there will still be some breeze, no high winds are expected.

“We’re not looking at really any high winds,” he said. “Kind of just a brisk wind, about 5 to 10 mph.”

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Easy come, easy go

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While the cold could pack a punch, Danzig said it will not remain in place long, as the winds are expected to change direction and begin ushering in warmer conditions closer to normal for this time of year.

“Following the cold on Sunday, we’ll return to a southerly (wind) flow,” he said. “We’ll see the temperatures begin to moderate back into seasonable levels.”

After seasonably normal temperatures next Monday and Tuesday, temperatures are expected to continue trending upward. They are anticipated to reach a crescendo for the week next Wednesday, possibly reaching the low to mid-40s, although Danzig said it was too early to have a reliable idea of how warm it will get.

As of press time Thursday evening, computer forecast models hinted at a soaking rainstorm accompanying the warmer temperatures next Wednesday, possibly leading to flooding concerns locally. Danzig said meteorologists at the NWS Burlington office have their eye on it. While it is too early to have a good sense of how impactful the event could be, Danzig said the office should have a better idea by the beginning of next week.

“We are watching the potential for a rain and potential flood event mid-week by Wednesday,” he said. “There’s still a little bit of uncertainty as to the total (rainfall) amounts, what the temperatures are going to look like, how much snow we might see melt — but we are monitoring the potential for that.”