Neighbours south of the border are preparing for a major winter storm, but questions still linger about if Manitobans will find themselves digging out in just a few days.

A low-pressure system heading for North Dakota currently has forecasters calling for anywhere between one and two feet of snow falling in the Grand Forks area on Thursday. Rain and freezing rain could possibly impact the region on Wednesday, before turning to heavy snow on Thursday. Winds blowing from the north at 45 km/h with gusts up to 80 km/h will make travel even more difficult. Heavy snow at times is expected to occur throughout the afternoon and into the evening, before weakening on Friday.

For the most part, it looks as though Manitoba might escape the brunt of the snow, but forecasters caution that it's still early.

"Currently, it looks like it's just going to clip Southeastern Manitoba," meteorologist Shannon Moody from Environment Canada says. "So, unfortunately for them, Ontario is going to be the province that bears the brunt of it. Some snow will come to Portage. Parts of Manitoba will get from 10 to 15 to 20 cm." 

Winnipeg and the capital region aren't necessarily getting away with missing the system completely.

"I wouldn't say (Winnipeg will get) nothing," Moody says. "We could certainly get some flurries with it, but it looks like yeah, in general, Winnipeg's been pretty lucky so far."

The same could be said for the Pembina and Red River Valleys where there's a chance of showers starting Tuesday afternoon, and changing to flurries starting Tuesday night.

"We've had a really nice early November. Yes, we've had some snow, but I mean Saskatchewan has just had system after system moved through, central Manitoba has had a decent amount of snow, and northern Manitoba, too. So yeah, we just keep on being in the middle of these systems, so we're OK for now."

Moody, however, cautioned once again that it is still early and the system could shift to have more of an impact on southern Manitoba. "It's still a way out; like we're looking at this starting Thursday afternoon into Friday. So if there are any shifts in the system, it could hit us, but at this point, it's just looking like southeastern Manitoba." 

Meanwhile, the Portage area is expected to hit a high of -6 on Thursday and dipping down to lows of -15 on the weekend.