It’s the first official day of spring, but many residents in Eastern Canada aren’t thinking about tulips and daffodils; they’re thinking about snow shovels and road salt.
An unexpected spring storm is hitting Atlantic Canada Wednesday, with a number of areas expecting to get buried in heavy, wet snow.
That includes parts of northern New Brunswick, which are expected to see up to 25 centimetres of snow by Wednesday night. Residents of central and western Nova Scotia are expected to have to clear away up to 20 centimetres of snow, while P.E. I. could see between 10 and 15 centimetres.
Those parts of the Maritimes that aren’t expecting heavy snow are being warned to watch for strong winds and freezing rain.
Several flights in and out of Halifax Stanfield International Airport have already been either cancelled or delayed. School has also been cancelled at all schools in Halifax Regional School Board as well as in districts in northeastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Dalhousie University reports it won’t open until noon Wednesday.
Students also have the day off in New Brunswick's anglophone school districts as well as in some of the francophone districts.
Environment Canada blames a low pressure system that’s moving northeast from Indiana for bringing the messy mix of snow, ice pellets, and freezing rain.
Another low pressure system tracking east from northern Minnesota spread plenty of snow across northern Ontario and Quebec Tuesday.
The late winter wallop buried Montreal in more than 20 centimetres of snow while parts of the Eastern Townships saw as much as 50 centimetres.
The wet and heavy snow delayed trains and buses throughout Montreal, while dozens of flights in and out of Montreal's Trudeau airport were delayed or cancelled. As well, many schools, especially those west and south of Montreal, cancelled classes for the day.
Montreal is now asking local commuters to use public transit over the next couple of days, to allow city workers to clear streets. But with 10,000 kilometres of road to clear, the city is warning residents not to expect it will all get done overnight.
“This is not something that can be removed in one shot,” the city’s Jacques-Alain Lavallee told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Obviously, the snow continues to fall and our teams are making sure that they do patrol the streets.”
In the U.S., the same storm that hit Quebec and Ontario brought plenty of snow and sleet to the Northeast throughout Tuesday. And it’s expected to continue through Wednesday.
Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass., says while most residents would rather see winter bagging its bags by now, it’s not unusual to have a snowstorm in the Northeast this late in the season.
"They don't happen all the time, but it's not, you know, unheard of," he told The Associated Press.
