Weather bomb set to explode over Maritimes with snow, strong winds
Posted Mar 25, 2014 06:31:37 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
We’re 24 hours out from what could be the storm of the season and we’re not even in the season anymore.
A massive snow storm is working its way towards us, complete with a blizzard warning and a storm surge warning, and it should be here right in time for tomorrow morning’s rush hour drive.
The weather bomb is bringing anywhere between 30 and 50 centimetres of snow with it.
Meteorologist Richard Zurawski says any hope of rain is gone. It’s going to be all snow all day and there will be strong winds too.
“I’d be expecting the winds to gust between 80 and 100km/h because the system is so deep and tightly wound and it’s going to start tomorrow morning probably around 8a.m. so you’re going to be looking at blowing and drifting flurries and the of course that will rapidly change to snow as the day progresses,” he says.
By 10 or 11a.m., we’ll be in the thick of it with up to five centimeters of snow falling an hour, but Zurawski says it should taper off in the evening and through the overnight.
The term White Juan has been used to describe this storm and while the forecast isn’t calling for that yet, Zurawski says there is the potential it could be that bad for some of us.
“Any time you’re forecasting 30 to 50 centimetres of snow and then of course blowing and drifting snow on top of that, the possibility is there,” he warns.
HRM winter works superintendent Gord Hayward tells News 95.7 a 30 centimetre storm is business as usual but 50 centimetres would be a different story. Having said that, he says the city is ready.
“We’re still in our winter mode, all of our equipment contracts are all still in place so it’ll be just another winter storm, albeit it sounds like it’s going to be a big one,” he explains. “Most of the frost is out of the ground now so we have to be a little more cognisant of pushing against soft curbs and gravel roads and shoulders are getting soft too.”
He adds this time of year the post-storm clean-up isn’t as difficult because the temperature is warmer and you don’t have to haul out massive piles of snow.
Zurawski confirms that, saying the big melt starts Friday.
“There will be sunshine, 6, 7, 8 degrees across the region, so you wind up with the melt then late Saturday into Sunday, another disturbance coming in with some rain so you’re looking at melting snow and rain the potential for flooding,” he says.
