Winter storms pummel both coasts of Canada with snow, rain and high winds

Both eastern and western Canada are being hit by wild weather today, filled with freezing rain, heavy snow and even a high king tide.

A massive storm moving up the eastern coast of North America is now encompassing much of Eastern and Atlantic Canada and is bringing with it heavy rain and snowfalls.

A low pressure system rumbling up from the New England states is bringing with it snow, high winds and 60 to 150 mm of rain and up to 40 cm of snow for parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. But particularly worrisome are the calls for freezing rain and snow expected to hit central and northern New Brunswick later today. Emergency officials in the region are on alert for as much as a half inch of ice forming on trees and power lines that could cause outages and damage to municipal electrical structures. And because the ground is frozen at this time of the year, there is also a potential for flooding with all the high rainfall amounts.

The massive nor’easter is also looping back into eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. The Montreal region, which is already digging out from 20 cm received overnight is still under a snowfall warning today, with at least 10 cm of the white stuff expected into tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the nation’s capital is expecting upwards of 20 cm of snowfall over the course of the day, and the nearby corridor running from Kingston through Cornwall is filled with it own snowfall warnings ranging from 15 to 25 cm over the course of the day.

Environment Canada has also put out special weather statement for the Toronto region, with predictions for about 10 cm of snow accompanied by high winds. Expected to begin Wednesday evening and last well into Thursday, the snow will be accompanied by strong gusts of wind, just in time for a messy morning commute.

West Coast Troubles

But it’s not just the east getting pummelled, because western Canada is also being hit with many watches and warnings of their own at play.

A series of storms have been hitting the West Coast over the last few days, with Tuesday’s subtropical system coming in from the Pacific Ocean already leaving thousands without power on Vancouver Island. The city of Courtenay has already been drenched with as much as 200 mm of rain, causing flooding that may be end up being worse than what was experienced four and five years ago.

The Victoria and Vancouver areas are also now bracing for their third big rainstorm system, bringing with it winds of 90 km/h and up to 70 mm of rain today alone.

And making the situation worse is that a storm surge will reach its peak when a ‘king tide’ hits the southwest part of the province this morning. King tides occur when the sun and moon’s gravitational forces double up while the moon is closest to Earth in its orbit.

This celestial combination could bring with it extensive flooding to low-lying areas and so residents with waterfront properties have put up walls of sandbags in anticipation of today’s forecasted weather events.

And to think that we are still over a week away from winter’s official start.