A nor'easter has descended on Atlantic Canada bringing heavy snow, rain and strong winds to the region.
In Nova Scotia, the storm’s strong winds were being blamed on Wednesday for knocking out electricity to almost 30,000 homes and businesses served by Nova Scotia Power. Outages were reported across the province, from Yarmouth in the southwest to Sydney in the northeast.
More than half of the outages were reported from three communities: Windsor and Coldbrook on the eastern side of the Annapolis Valley, and Dartmouth on the east side of Halifax harbour.
In much of Newfoundland the storm brought the season's first snow day, cancelling schools across central and eastern parts of the island.
"It's the most wonderful day of the year!" said a Facebook post by the Avalon Nordic skiing club, which operates winter skiing and snowshoeing trails at Butterpot provincial park, just outside St. John's.
Schools were also closed in P.E.I., but there was a patchwork of closures in Nova Scotia, where the snowfall was particularly light along the Atlantic coast. In New Brunswick, public schools were closed in the southern and eastern regions of the province.
Schools were open across the sprawling Halifax region, which received a mix of rain and light snow in the morning.
Meanwhile, driving conditions were poor north of Halifax and into the northern reaches of the province, where heavy snow and poor visibility forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway from an area west of Truro, N.S., and across the Cobequid Mountains, which are notorious for rough winter weather. The highway provides the fastest road link between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Up to 30 centimetres of wet heavy snow was expected across Hants, Colchester, Pictou and Antigonish counties, all of which are north and northeast of the Halifax region, where the weather started improving after 11 a.m. Environment Canada had lifted snowfall warnings for several other counties on the western side of the province around the same time as the storm moved toward Newfoundland.
Environment Canada has issued a mix of orange and yellow snowfall warnings across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland since Tuesday. The yellow warnings forecast 20-30 cm of snow by Wednesday afternoon, while the orange warnings — in northern Cape Breton and in central Newfoundland — called for 30-50 cm by the evening.
The agency said the bulk of the precipitation will be wet and heavy snow, but there is a chance for a mixture of snow and rain in some areas, especially along the immediate coast. Some areas can also expect high winds topping out between 80-100 kilometres per hour, whipping up large waves, pounding surf and elevated sea levels.
New Brunswick's eastern coast was also under a special weather statement, with a snowfall accumulation of 10-15 cm expected.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly
