After a rather mild January in the Kamloops area, it’s about to get a whole lot colder.

Environment Canada expects the cold weather to set in on Saturday night, before dropping to -17 by Monday night.

Meteorologist Bobby Sekhon says we’ll see some snow on Saturday night before the arctic air blows into the area.

“It’s certainly not uncommon for this time of year,” he admitted. “Even our low of Monday night is not record-breaking.”

“However, it’s quite a bit below normal for this time of year.”

The normal low for this time of year is -6 in Kamloops.

“As we move along next week, temperatures moderate a little bit,” he added. “However, they will still remain below normal for the remainder of the week.”

He noted that the sudden change in the temperature might be a little shocking to some people in the area.