Special weather statement issued ahead of Wednesday snowfall in the Maritimes

Kalin Mitchell shares the Maritime weather forecast for Feb. 9.

An Alberta clipper speeding across the country will pass south and east of Nova Scotia on Wednesday, but the weather system will come close enough to bring snow to the Maritimes.

Nova Scotia will receive the most snow and parts of the province are now under a special weather statement.

Weather alerts

Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for Nova Scotia at 4 p.m. Monday. The statement covers the entire province except for Cumberland County, northern Colchester County, northern Inverness County, and Victoria County.

Snow is expected to develop “over western Nova Scotia Wednesday morning and move eastward across the province reaching Cape Breton by Wednesday evening.” The snowfall will ease to flurries for much of the province Wednesday night, though snow may persist in eastern parts of the province Thursday morning.

The weather agency cautions on potential totals of 10-to-25 cm.

Snowfall outlook

Given the track and speed of the system, I expect Nova Scotia and eastern Prince Edward Island will see 10-to-20 cm of snow. Pockets of 20-to-30 cm are possible for communities near or on the Atlantic coastline of Nova Scotia.

Parts of southern New Brunswick and the remainder of Prince Edward Island should expect to see snowfall totals of 5-to-10 cm.

The rest of New Brunswick will likely experience periods of lighter snow with totals up to 5 cm.

A note on wind

Wind isn’t expected to be overly strong with this system, but it will still be enough to create some brief periods of blowing and drifting snow.

The wind will initially come out of the south early Wednesday morning with gusts of 20 to 40 km/h.

It then becomes easterly for Nova Scotia and northeast for Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick Wednesday afternoon, with gusts of 20 to 40 km/h.

The wind will become northerly for the entire Maritimes Wednesday night, with gusts remaining at 20-to-40 km/h for most of the region, except gusting as high as 40-to-60 km/h for eastern Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton.