Flight cancellations and delays are racking up at airports across the Maritimes this afternoon.
Heavy, wet snow and high winds forecast for Wednesday have the region's power companies on alert and ready to respond to widespread outages.
Nova Scotia Power said it's stationing power line crews and forestry teams across that province as it activates its emergency operations centre ahead of the storm. NB Power has urged its customers to have a 72-hour emergency kit at the ready in the event of widespread power outages.
At airports in Halifax, Moncton, N.B., Fredericton, Saint John, Charlottetown and Sydney, N.S., some arrivals and departures scheduled for this afternoon and evening were cancelled or delayed Tuesday morning.
Flight cancellations and delays have been reported at Maritime airports. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
Also of concern is a powerful storm surge along the Atlantic coast that could produce waves of up to seven to 10 metres near high tide Tuesday evening.
Snow is expected to begin falling in southwestern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick early Tuesday afternoon and will spread northeast across the Maritimes, moving to Cape Breton, northern New Brunswick and P.E.I. this evening.
CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell said the snow will start off light Tuesday but then start falling quickly. East and northeast winds will blow the snow around, making it tough to see if you're out on the roads.
A pedestrian walks through a snowstorm in Halifax on Thursday, March 8, 2018. A third winter storm in five days is expected to bring gusting winds and snow across the Maritimes. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)
The wet snow is expected to turn to rain later Tuesday night into Wednesday, but could turn back to wet snow Wednesday morning for parts of Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick and P.E.I. before tapering off to a few flurries, according to Environment Canada.
The national weather service is calling for total snowfall amounts of 15 to 20 centimetres with up to 30 centimetres possible for the Cape Breton Highlands and as much as 40 centimetres for the eastern half of New Brunswick. But with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark it's hard to pinpoint how much snow will fall before the rain.
Weather warnings
Environment Canada has weather warnings in place for every county in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. as well as most of New Brunswick.
All Nova Scotia counties east of — and including — Colchester, Hants and Halifax, as well as P.E.I.'s Queens and Kings counties, are under wind warnings and winter storm watches.
The eastern half of Nova Scotia and western P.E.I. can expect strong east to northeasterly winds gusting to 90 km/h into Wednesday morning with gusts up to 110 km/h along parts of the Atlantic coast. All of that wind, combined with wet, heavy snow increases the chances of power outages.
The second of three nor'easters in five days left this road impassable in East Gore, N.S. on Saturday. (Melissa Friedman/CBC)
Almost all of New Brunswick, P.E.I. Prince County, Nova Scotia's Cumberland County and all counties in Southwest Nova Scotia and the Annapolis Valley are under winter storm warnings. Environment Canada issues the warnings "when multiple types of severe winter weather are expected to occur together."
Risk of storm surge
In addition to the wet snow and wind, Shelburne, Queens and Lunenburg counties are under a storm surge warning with higher than normal water levels and heavy, pounding surf Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
"The combination of very strong easterly winds and low pressure will produce waves of possibly seven to 10 metres near high tide this evening," said Environment Canada's warning.
"The largest threat is for east to southeast facing shorelines exposed to these waves, especially for Shelburne and Queens counties."
The risk won't go down with the tide, either. The weather service said the "high waves will be persistent" along parts of the coast that face east and southeast, and could continue for several hours after high tide.
Waves and debris covered the roadway near the surfer's paradise of Lawrencetown Beach in January. (Submitted by Allan Zilkowsky)
The rest of Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast, stretching from Halifax to Cape Breton, is also in for some rough seas with waves of up to six to eight metres near high tide on Wednesday.
"There is a risk of localized flooding during these high tides as well as coastal erosion and infrastructure damage due to heavy pounding surf, especially as some of these same coastal areas were already affected by similar conditions last week," said Environment Canada.
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