Atlantic Canada to get more snow through Wednesday, and a rough February ahead

Canada’s Atlantic Provinces are being battered by the first blizzard of 2015 thanks to a major Nor’easter swirling up the eastern coast. But forecasters warn there may be more to come.

While the massive storm only side-swiped New York City, the same system has hit with full force across much of New England and forced blizzard warnings in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This has led to cancelled flights and closed businesses and schools across much of the region today.

“To give you an idea how bad it has been, a few hours ago, Fredericton had zero visibility in heavy snow with winds gusting to 83 km/h,” said Brett Anderson, chief meteorologist at accuweather.com said in an interview with Yahoo Canada News.

“The combination of wind and temperature is making it feel as low as 30 below right now. Most definitely an all-out blizzard!”

The storm is currently located just east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and will weaken tonight as it continues to track to the northeast.

In Nova Scotia, winds today are gusting over 90 km/h with 15 to 35 cm of snow. Atlantic Canada will continue to get hammered over the next 36 hours and temperatures could warm up, producing freezing rain and localized flooding, which will make driving that much more difficult.

Anderson warns that for at least the next day or so, residents across the Maritimes region should not be surprised to see power outages and severe snow drifting. White-out conditions across much of New Brunswick and PEI should be expected. Parts of the Transcanada Highway have already been shut down due to poor visibility and flights have been cancelled throughout the day making travel difficult for thousands.

“We are still expecting a general 30 to 50 cm of snow across central and southern New Brunswick through Wednesday morning, but the worst of the storm will be over by this evening.

Could there be more monster storms in the offing this season for Atlantic Canada?

Looking at the seasonal forecasts, Anderson believes that the weather pattern now in place suggests that the setup is perfect for more coastal storms throughout the month of February. And it looks like that much of the month will also be unusually cold right across much of eastern Canada. This will be quite different from the situation out west, where they will experience much milder conditions with temperatures reaching into the mid-teens on the plus side.

“The overall pattern into February seems to favour the formation of more coastal storms, which could bring more wind and snow to Atlantic Canada,” Anderson said.

And since misery likes company, a another clipper storm will likely bring a widespread 8 to 15 cm snowfall for folks in Ontario and Quebec starting Thursday morning into the late evening.