'Pretty intense' snowstorm to hit Eastern Canada

After a snow-filled weekend in Ontario and Quebec, Atlantic Canada will continue to see snowy streets in the first week of April.

According to Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, some parts of central and northern New Brunswick may end up with 15-30 cm of snow by Wednesday evening.

“It’s probably more like a storm you see in early March instead of early April,” Anderson told Yahoo Canada News. “It’s not super huge in size but it’s going to be pretty intense and it’s probably going to be moving right up across Nova Scotia later in the day on Wednesday.”

The system is expected to bring mostly heavy rain and strong winds to the Nova Scotia area, with the snow mostly centered across New Brunswick.

Ontario and Quebec

Despite the active pattern in the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec should be fairly quiet for the rest of the week, but the region will still feel a chill.

“It’s going to be cold certainly across Quebec into Atlantic Canada for most of the rest of this week, temperatures below normal there,” Anderson said. “In southern Ontario, I do expect mostly dry conditions here through Thursday, we may see a brief shower here tomorrow afternoon.”

Southern Ontario should see another small system come into the area on Friday, which may bring a brief period of rain, possibly mixed with sleet or freezing rain, but that is expected to disappear for the weekend.

“It looks like a dry weekend shaping up, chilly start but then it gets milder as we get into Sunday,” Anderson said.

Prairies

Unlike Eastern Canada, the Prairies should see dry conditions for the foreseeable future, while range is temperatures across the region is particularly interesting.

According to Anderson, Manitoba should be around 3 C for a high, while southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta will see temperatures around 15 C.

“A pretty good warm up across the western Prairies, still chilly though through midweek across the eastern Prairies,” Anderson said. “Then we’ve got general cooling across most of the Prairies as we get into Friday but nothing too significant at this point.”

British Columbia

A more wet pattern will be coming through B.C., with rain expected to hit Vancouver by the end of the work week.

“We’ve got a weak little system coming in tomorrow across southern British Columbia,...that moves out for Thursday and then a bigger storm comes in for Friday into Saturday with more rain, especially across Vancouver,” Anderson said.

“This storm might also have a fair amount of wind with it across Vancouver Island into Vancouver for Friday and Saturday.”

While the city manages the rain, the ski areas in B.C. are expected to see some snow during that time.

‘Typical April temperatures’ on the horizon

Moving into the second week of the month, weather patterns are looking fairly mild across B.C. and up towards the Yukon, with temperatures expected to get above normal.

Despite the fact that crews with the BC Wildfire Service have already been used to manage a 15-hectare wildfire roughly 17 kilometres up the Squamish Valley, Anderson says it’s a bit too early to determine the exact extent of the wildfire risks in B.C. this season.

“March was unseasonably mild, not much snow and mild, so you get rid of that snow pack earlier than usual and things start drying out,” Anderson explained. “We’re going to get two rounds of pretty good precipitation around that area now...I think we need a little more time to tell.”

While much of Western Canada sees more mild temperatures, the coldest air relative to normal is going to be from northern Ontario to central Quebec up through Atlantic Canada as we move into mid-April.

“I think in general, much of southern Ontario to the southern Prairies we’re looking at fairly typical April temperatures at this point,” Anderson said.