Windy start to the weekend, with snowy and icy weather to finish

A person is pictured shovelling snow on a sidewalk.

A light mix of snow and rain crosses the Maritimes Friday night. Milder January temperatures for Saturday but with a gusty west wind. A pair of low-pressure systems, one from the Prairies and one out of the U.S., returns a more significant mix of wintry weather to the Maritimes on Sunday.

Friday night snow and rain

The mix of snow and rain crossing the Maritimes Friday evening and night isn’t expected to be disruptive.

The snow can mostly be expected north of Fredericton in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and in the Cape Breton Highlands. Where snow accumulates it should be limited to amounts of one to four centimetres. There is a risk of some light, patchy freezing rain with the snow.

Rain amounts are expected to total a few to several millimetres.

Mild and windy Saturday

The wind becomes west and northwest by Saturday morning and increases in strength. Expect widespread gusts of 40 to 60 km/h with gusts of 60 to 80 km/h on exposed coastal areas of the Acadian Peninsula, northern coastline of Prince Edward Island, Northumberland shoreline of Nova Scotia and the Cabot Strait coastline of Cape Breton. The higher winds are expected to diminish in western parts of the Maritimes Saturday afternoon and eastern parts of the Maritimes Saturday evening.

High temperatures will be above seasonable on Saturday. Daytime highs of 2 to 7 degrees in New Brunswick, 6 to 9 degrees in Nova Scotia, and 4 to 6 degrees for Prince Edward Island.

Temperatures Saturday night fall back below freezing, which sets the region up for the wintry mix expected on Sunday.

Sunday snow, freezing rain, and rain

Weather conditions turn more challenging for parts of the Maritimes on Sunday.

A mix of snow, freezing rain, and rain will develop west-to-east Sunday morning into afternoon. The wintry mix of weather continues into Sunday evening. The mix then clears west-to-east Sunday night into early Monday morning.

A band of 10 to 20 cm of snow with higher localized totals that could approach 20-30 cm is being modelled on the northern side of the storm. As of Friday afternoon, that was predicted to come across the northern half of New Brunswick and possibly Prince County, P.E.I.

The remainder of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and parts of northern Nova Scotia are likely to experience more of a mix of snow, ice pellets, and freezing rain. For those areas snow could still total 5-to-10 cm but there will also be an increased risk of icy surfaces due to the freezing rain.

While much of Nova Scotia will experience a quicker turn from snow to rain there is a risk of freezing rain there as well. The risk is highest in the interior of the province as well as more broadly across the north and east. Rain looks to be heaviest on the Atlantic coastline and may total 15 to 40 mm in some cases.

Special Weather Statements were issued Friday afternoon for New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and parts of the north of Nova Scotia. The statements cautioning on snow that could exceed 15 cm in New Brunswick and the icy mix of weather expected in Prince Edward Island and parts of Nova Scotia.