Nor’easter closes all N.S., P.E.I. schools, more than 35K customers without power

Playing null of undefined

CTV National News: Major snowstorm shutters schools and causes power outages across Nova Scotia

First at Five: Snow Day

Maritimes kicks off the week with a heavy snowfall

Nor’easter closes schools, knocks out power in N.S.

Messy start to the week in the Maritimes

Weather update: Jan. 19, 2026

Schools across Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were closed Monday and more than 35,000 customers are without power after a Nor’easter brought dense, heavy snow to the region overnight.

Weather alerts

Yellow snowfall warnings for Nova Scotia and parts of Prince Edward Island have ended.

There are also no weather alerts in place for New Brunswick.

The snow was expected to end Monday morning over mainland Nova Scotia and near noon over Cape Breton.

Preliminary snowfall reports show higher elevations of Cumberland/Colchester counties received around 30 cm.

Some coastal reports in the Halifax area showed amounts as low as 10 cm, while more inland areas reported closer to 20 cm.

There was also a report of 27 cm in Charlottetown.

School closures

All schools in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. were closed while only schools in the Hillsborough area of New Brunswick were closed.

A full list of closures can be found here.

Other closures

The province of Nova Scotia said government offices in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, as well as Antigonish, Guysborough, Richmond, Victoria and Inverness counties, would open at 11 a.m.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality offices reopened at 1 p.m.

All provincial civil service offices in the East Prince area of P.E.I. opened at 9:30 a.m.

All provincial civil service offices in the Queens, Charlottetown and Kings County areas were on a further delayed opening of 12:30 p.m.

Charlottetown City Hall and its administrative offices were on a delayed opening of 12:30 p.m.

Summerside City Hall, along with its administrative offices and all non-essential services, opened at 9:30 a.m.

Several Health PEI clinics and other services are on a delayed opening.

The Halifax Regional Municipality said all municipal offices would opening until noon. Many municipal recreation facilities are also delaying opening.

Solid waste collection scheduled for Monday in the HRM has been rescheduled to Saturday.

The municipality is asking residents to avoid all non-essential travel while cleanup efforts are underway.

The overnight winter parking ban will also continue to be enforced, in both Zone 1 – Central and Zone 2 – Non-Central, from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Vehicles must be off municipal streets during those hours, or they could be towed.

The opening of all CFB Halifax properties (including Shearwater) delayed until noon.

Sunnyside Mall in Bedford is closed for the day due to a power outage.

The Halifax Shopping Centre has delayed opening to 4 p.m. due to a continued power outage.

The Canada Games Centre in Halifax and Cole Harbour Place in Dartmouth delayed opening until noon.

The Halifax Public Gardens are closed.

Power

Just after 6 p.m., there were more than 35,000 Nova Scotia Power customers without electricity.

At one point, there were more than 130,000 customers in the dark.

The utility opened its Emergency Operations Centre at 6 a.m. Monday.

“Heavy snowfall has brought down trees and branches onto power lines, causing the outages,” reads a post on social media.

“Our crews have been working throughout the night to restore power and we have hundreds of people in the field today working hard to get the power back on. While we are working as quickly as possible, snow clearing and road conditions can be tricky for our crews and can slow our ability to safely get to sites to restore power.”

The largest outages are in the Halifax and Bridgewater areas. Restoration times vary by region.

There were two outages at 2 p.m. on P.E.I. and one outage impacting seven NB Power customers.

Roads

Just before 5 a.m., Halifax Regional Police said Highway 118 was closed outbound just past Exit 13 due to several large trucks blocking the highway.

The area is expected to be closed for an extended period of time. Traffic is being diverted to Highway 107 toward Waverley Road.

At that time, the Nova Scotia RCMP said it was responding to multiple collisions on Highway 104 in Cumberland County and Highway 102 in Colchester County.

“Exercise extreme caution on roadways. Remember: Slow down and move over when approaching first responders at the roadside,” it said in a post.

Highway 102 at Exit 10 southbound closed at 7:30 a.m. due to tractor-trailer blocking the road. It reopened about an hour later.

Other transportation

Some flights at Halifax Stanfield International Airport are either delayed or cancelled.

Marine Atlantic says the following sailings have been rescheduled for Monday:

• The 11:15 p.m. crossing from North Sydney, N.S., to Port aux Basques, N.L. will now leave at 10:15 p.m.
• The 11:30 p.m. crossing from Port aux Basques to North Sydney will now leave at 10:30 p.m.

The following sailings for Tuesday are cancelled:

• The 12:30 p.m. crossing from North Sydney to Port aux Basques
• The 11:15 p.m. crossing from North Sydney to Port aux Basques
• The 11:30 p.m. crossing from Port aux Basques to North Sydney

Postal service

Canada Post says red delivery service alerts have issued for parts of the Maritimes.

There are no deliveries Monday in Charlottetown, Cornwall and Hunter due to severe winter conditions on P.E.I.

There are no deliveries in the following parts of Nova Scotia:

• Amherst
• Antigonish
• Bedford
• Cape Breton
• Dartmouth
• Eastern Shore
• Halifax
• Sackville
• South Nova Scotia
• Truro

There are also no deliveries in Moncton and Dieppe, N.B.

“We encourage customers to clear the snow and ice from their walkways, stairs, and driveways, to ensure safe access to the front door for both their visitors, as well as their mail carriers, when service resumes,” the corporation said in a post on X.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kalin Mitchell.