Snow squall alerts in effect in Nova Scotia, ferry crossings cancelled

A storm caused dozens of vehicle accidents and outages in the Maritimes.

Snow squall warnings are in place in parts of Nova Scotia Tuesday morning as cold air returns to the region.

Weather alerts

Yellow snow squall watches are in place for Annapolis, Kings, Hants, Colchester, and Cumberland counties in Nova Scotia.

Heavy flurries and possible snow squalls are expected to develop Tuesday morning through late Wednesday.

Up to 20 cm is expected in some areas, along with wind gusts of 50 to 60 km/h.

“As colder air floods into the region later today and tonight, these flurries have the potential to become intense localized snow squalls,” the watch from Environment Canada says.

“Prepare for the possibility of quickly changing and deteriorating travel conditions.”

There were no weather alerts in effect for New Brunswick or P.E.I. as of 11 a.m.

Travel

Marine Atlantic has cancelled the following Tuesday sailings due to weather conditions:

• The 11:45 a.m. sailing from Port aux Basques, N.L., to North Sydney, N.S.
• The 11:15 p.m. sailing from North Sydney to Port aux Basques
• The 11:30 p.m. sailing from Port aux Basques to North Sydney

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen this month is just storm system after storm system after storm system,” said Darrell Mercer, communications manager for Marine Atlantic. “And in the long range forecast, we’re seeing another system moving in later this week. We’re trying to get those windows where we can move the traffic, and once we do have those weather windows we can move that traffic fairly quickly. Mother Nature has wreaked havoc this December.”

Bay Ferries says two Fundy Rose sailings are cancelled Tuesday due to forecasted conditions.

• The 9 a.m. Saint John, N.B., departure is cancelled
• The 4 p.m. Digby, N.S., departure is cancelled

As of 3 a.m., the Halifax Stanfield International Airport reopened its airfield for flight operations. The airport had suspended aircraft operations late Monday afternoon and evening due to freezing rain.

“Please note, it may take time for airline scheduled operations to normalize,” Halifax Stanfield advised in a Facebook post. “Please check your flight status directly with your airline before coming to the airport.”

Power

As of 4:30 p.m., there were more than 2,000 NB Power customers without electricity.

There were no major outages at that time in Nova Scotia or P.E.I. due to the weather.

An outage in the Halifax area that affected Lower Sackville, Windsor Junction, and areas of Waverley and Bedford Monday evening has been restored.

Vehicle accidents

Between 7 a.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nova Scotia RCMP said they responded to dozens of motor vehicle accidents all across the province.

“Due to the freezing rain and the conditions, we were told, I think, that there were 93 different collisions across the province”, said Cpl. Michael Francis of Nova Scotia-Northeast Traffic Services.

“As you know, there is still some rutting here on the highways - the parts that aren’t done and that’s causing a problem where people are actually driving in the ruts and they’re driving in what are like little lakes.”

-With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald