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Snow, ice pellets and freezing rain: A Newfoundland mix of weather this week

Snow, ice pellets and freezing rain: A Newfoundland mix of weather this week

Anyone bold enough to put away their salt and shovels may want to rethink that.

Environment Canada has a week of wintry weather — including snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and high winds — forecast through this week.

"Everybody's gonna get a bit of something, that's for sure," says Tabea Feichter, a meteorologist at Environment Canada's weather office in Gander.

Precipitation won't start until late Tuesday night, Feichter said, but it's going to be a messy mix for most of the island by Wednesday morning.

Hopefully a lot of that snow we're gonna get will be gone again by the end of the weekend. - Tabea Feichter

"There could be a few flurries around in the evening or near midnight, but then we are looking at some ice pellets, freezing rain coming in early tomorrow morning and most of that will persist through the day," she said in an interview Tuesday.

The weather will be "a mainly freezing rain event" on Wednesday, "but we are looking at a chance over to rain for almost all areas by the afternoon."

Freezing rain accumulations could be up to 15 millimetres, Feichter said, which is "a good bit of freezing rain."

That freezing rain warning covers the south coast stretching all the way from St. John's to Port aux Basques, Feichter said, with coastal areas switching to rain Wednesday afternoon.

But for places like Gander, Corner Brook and Port aux Basques, up to Terra Nova and Bonavista, Feichter said, the forecast is for ice pellets and snow.

"In through Deer Lake, Buchans, we can see about five to 10 centimetres of snow, with definitely some ice pellets mixed in there, which would make it fairly slippery on the roads," she said.

Rain to save the day?

Up toward Green Bay and White Bay, Feichter said there's a snowfall warning issued, with 15 centimetres expected by the end of Wednesday.

After what Feichter said is a "brief reprieve" from the wintry weather, a second system is coming for later this week.

"By Thursday afternoon we've got more snow coming into the southwest. It's a very similar track, a very similar system, less freezing rain," Feichter said.

"We're still looking at a bit of ice pellets, but definitely the majority of precipitation is gonna be snow — not so much for the Avalon and Burin Peninsula, which will see mostly rain, but areas west of there."

In Gander, it could be as much as 20 centimetres of snow by Friday.

"Let's hope it doesn't last very long," Feichter said, adding that a third weather system is on its way for the weekend. With higher temperatures, though it's expected to be mostly rain.

"So hopefully a lot of that snow we're gonna get will be gone again by the end of the weekend."

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