Atlantic Canada digs out after major winter storm

Residents of Nova Scotia, PEI and eastern New Brunswick are digging out today, after a major blizzard swept through the area on Wednesday, and that same storm is still spreading a wintry mix across Newfoundland and Labrador this morning.

Snow plows are out in force today, in an attempt to clear roads that saw snow accumulations of 30 centimetres or more across Nova Scotia on Wednesday, and even up to 37 centimetres in Charlottetown, PEI. While the heavy snowfall itself was a hazard, winds gusting up to 100 kilometres per hour at times kicked up blowing snow and blizzard conditions that quickly covered over attempts to clear the roads during the storm.

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"With the type of blizzard conditions we had yesterday, often times we can make a cut through into a street and within a few hours you’d barely know that we were there," Darrin Natolino, from the Halifax Regional Municipality Transportation and Public Works, told CBC News.

Now that crews are clear to work without the storm pushing back, it will be a hard day's work, but Natolino was optimistic, saying: "I'd expect by the evening commute most people will go home to a nice, wide-open street and it will all be back to normal."

The storm pushed north over the island of Newfoundland last night, but rather than blasting the island's residents with the same combination of snow and wind seen in the other parts of the Maritimes, it's been delivering a more mixed bag of winter weather.

The snow and blowing snow spread across the western half of the island and into Labrador, but further to the east has been seeing more rain, freezing rain and ice pellets thrown into the mix as temperatures there climbed overnight. Gander reported ice pellets and freezing drizzle for most of the night due to temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. St. John's and the Avalon Peninsula have seen mostly rain from this storm as temperatures skyrocketed there, going from below freezing yesterday evening up to +10°C in just a matter of a few hours!

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Cold air is settling in behind the storm for the rest of the work-week, but the weekend looks to be bringing a bit of warmth for the Maritimes. Temperatures are only expected to reach a few degrees above freezing, and it's not set to last more than a day or two. However, it might help to 'melt out' from under all the snow before temperatures dip down again next week.

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