A snowy and slick start to the day on Thursday for Foothills residents.

Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning Wednesday afternoon.

Brian Proctor, meteorologist with Environment Canada, says the temperature drop came in from the west.

"We've got a slow moving low pressure centre that's coming across through British Columbia and it's really set up a lot of up-slope flow over southern Alberta," he explains. "So we're looking at a really prolonged period of light snowfall for the Okotoks area."

Proctor says residents can expect snow to continue through to Friday.

"We're looking at setup for about 48 hours of snow at this point in time, not looking for heavy, heavy amounts with this but just gradual accumulations through that period. The amounts we'll probably see by Friday afternoon are in that 10- 15 centimetre range."

Temperatures are expected to remain below zero for the next five to seven days.

Proctor says we should see the sun by the end of the weekend or early next week.