Snow totals from Maritime storm comparable to White Juan: More snow to come

Incredibly high snow drifts making snow clearing extremely difficult in Sydney, N.S. (Courtesy: Terrylee McCarron)

White Juan comparison

The weekend long snowstorm is now approaching snow reports comparable to those seen with White Juan, the great blizzard of 2004, for parts of the Maritimes.

According to analysis by Environment Canada meteorologist Chris Fogarty, White Juan left a widespread swath of 60 to 90 cm of snow across Nova Scotia and eastern P.E.I. Feb. 18-19, 2004. Unofficial snow reports from White Juan had some totals in the range of 100 to 150 cm.

Snow reports from Sunday squarely put parts of central and eastern Nova Scotia as well as Prince Edward Island in that 40 to 80 cm range. CTV’s Chief meteorologist, Kalin Mitchell, says he recieved unofficial reports of snow amounts exceeding 80 cm in parts of Antigonish County as well as in Cape Breton. There are likely to be parts of Cape Breton that finish with near or above 100 cm of snow by Monday.

It should be noted that White Juan hit with stronger winds contributing more in the way or power outages. Peak gusts with White Juan reached 80 to 100 km/h and up to near 120 km/h on exposed areas of the Atlantic coastline of Nova Scotia. Peak gusts with the current storm have ranged 50 to 80 km/h which has still been plenty enough to create extensive drifting and blowing snow along with periods of whiteout conditions.

More to come

As of Sunday afternoon some mixing in of ice pellets and rain with the snow has been reported in coastal areas of Richmond and Cape Breton Counties. The mix should help limit overall additional snow accumulations as long as it persists for those areas. It will continue to add weight to the accumulated snow.

Bands of snow continues to wrap back into eastern mainland Nova Scotia and across Kings and Queens Counties in Prince Edward Island. It is also possible that some of the snow could reach Moncton and the southeast of New Brunswick, which could add up to near or more than 10 cm.

Improvements when?

The snow becomes lighter and more intermittent Sunday night into Monday morning. Further flurries or periods of lighter snow are expected across the Maritimes on Monday. There’s a chance of flurries by Tuesday morning for southeastern New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and eastern Nova Scotia.

The northerly wind peaks Sunday evening. For Monday, it continues with gusts of 30 to 60 km/h, which is still enough to create drifting snow through the day. The drifting snow could still reduce visibility and put snow coverage back onto previously cleared surfaces. The wind diminishes to sustained 10 to 20 km/h with gusts of 20 to 40 km/h by Tuesday morning.

There are extensive storm travel disruptions and event cancellations. Check here for the latest on those.