STEPHENVILLE, N.L. — There could be some dangerous driving conditions brought on by freezing rain and ice pellets mostly on the Burin and Avalon peninsulas during a storm system hitting the province on Thursday and running into Saturday.
Snow, and lots of it, is in the forecast for western and central Newfoundland, so blustery conditions are possible during that period.
Temperatures are expected to stay below freezing in western and central.
Cindy Day, SaltWire Network’s chief meteorologist, said Wednesday there are two areas of low-pressure coming together, with one over central Texas and the other over northern Mexico.
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She said they’re moving at an intense rate and racing towards the Atlantic region.
After passing through the Maritimes, the system pushes into southwestern Newfoundland at about 8 p.m. Thursday. It will mainly be a snow event in western Newfoundland, with Corner Brook and Deer Lake expected to get close to 35 centimetres of snow with some snow squalls early Saturday morning.
Day said it wouldn’t be surprising to see those numbers reach 40 centimetres along the west coast.
For the Burin and Avalon peninsulas, there will be a lot of mixing with ice pellets that will change over to rain as things ramp up Saturday morning.
It will be very cold with a strong northwesterly wind following behind the system, so anything slushy or watery will turn to ice quickly as Saturday progresses.
Day said the big thing to watch for is the freezing rain and ice pellets on the Avalon and Burin peninsulas, as it will make for heavy snow for those shoveling and slippery conditions for driving or walking.
She said it will not be excessively windy for central and western regions, but the Avalon will probably see some winds gusting to 90 km/hr from the southwest Saturday. She said Friday night to Saturday will be very windy in the east with a warm southwesterly wind followed by a cold wind behind it.
During all this, temperatures should get up to 1 or 2 C above freezing on the east coast but, when the precipitation stops, the winds will stay strong and the temperature will drop quickly.
The freezing rain and pellet mix for southeastern Newfoundland should last for four to six hours after the snow.
For western Newfoundland, the storm system goes through fast and wraps up Saturday also followed by a big drop in temperatures into the weekend.
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Day said Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander can expect about 20 centimetres of snow and the southwest corner of Newfoundland probably a little closer to 25 to 30 centimetres of snow.
Darrell Mercer, spokesperson for Marine Atlantic, said as of Wednesday afternoon, they have issued a travel advisory for Friday night’s crossings. He said the ferry captains will continue to monitor forecasts during the next 36 hours as they make their final decisions.
Any potential impacted customers will be contacted through their customer contact system and updates will be posted to the Marine Atlantic website.
