No joke: April 1 brings mix of snow, ice, rain to Maritimes

CTV Meteorologist Kalin Mitchell tracks a weather front that will bring snowy and icy conditions to parts of the Maritimes.

A warm front associated with a Colorado Low moving into the Great Lakes region will bring the Maritimes a mix of snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday.

The warm front is expected to move in from the southwest of New Brunswick and then across Nova Scotia. Areas at most risk of an extended period of snow, ice pellets and freezing rain will be along and just to the north of the front. Those areas are now mostly under a Special Weather Statement by Environment Canada.

That leaves the highest snow potential for the area of New Brunswick along and north of a line that runs approximately from Grand Falls to Miramichi. Some snow amounts of 10 to 15 cm are possible but may total less if ice pellets mix with the snow.

April snow is common in the Maritimes. Fredericton averages 16.7 cm, Halifax averages 16.6 cm (at the airport), and Charlottetown averages 21.4 cm.

The averages for all three provincial capitals fall to two centimetres or less for May.

Ice potential

A significant amount of ice pellets is expected across central New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and northern/eastern areas of Nova Scotia.

The ice pellets may collect to as much as one-to-five cm on the ground. The ice pellets will be followed by a period of light freezing rain, making for a risk of very slippery surfaces developing Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

The risk of ice pellets and freezing rain will be greatly diminished by noon on Wednesday. Patchy freezing drizzle may linger in Prince Edward Island and eastern Nova Scotia into Wednesday evening.

Rain and showers

The Bay of Fundy coastline of New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia will either remain or switch over to rain shortly after the system moves in.

Periods of rain, drizzle and fog for those areas will extend through Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

The rain will generally total 15-to-35 mm. I don’t anticipate much in the way of issues with that amount of rain.