It's brutally cold outside today, and it looks like it'll stay that way for a while, across the province.

Environment Canada Meteorologist Mike McDonald tells us we're not alone.

"This cold air stretches all the way from western Alberta, right on through Ontario," he says, "So, the entire central part of the continent is very cold, and it will be for the next five or six more days. What we have is a ridge of arctic high pressure which is pretty much entrenched over the Yukon, and it's reaching right down into the central prairies. Until that ridge of high pressure moves away, nothing really is going to change."

McDonald explains why the high pressure system in the prairies can't move.

"We have a huge area of low pressure that went through the maritimes, and now up over the Labrador sea," he says, "And that's basically blocking anything from moving, so this ridge of high pressure would like to move eastward, but until this low pressure system off the east coast moves out of the way, everything's in sort of a holding pattern."

McDonald expects the cold conditions to continue.

"We expect that ridge of high pressure to move from the western prairies right over top of us," he adds, "We'll probably see daytime highs only in the -26 to -28 range, and the nighttime lows around -35 for a couple of days, so even though it's cold today, it's going to get even colder for the weekend."