For residents of the Avalon, chances the drive home from work this afternoon will be a far cry from the morning commute.
The entirety of the peninsula is under a winter storm warning today as a system barrels towards the eastern portion of the island ready to delivery the first significant snowfall of the season.
SaltWire Network Meteorologist Cindy Day says snow should start late this afternoon with the heaviest snows coming overnight to early Friday morning.
Day says the Avalon region can expect 20 centimetres or more before snow tapers off tomorrow morning.
Winds will shift to the northeast this afternoon and gust to 90 km/h before coming around to the west early Friday morning.
“I would imagine whiteout conditions through much of the day Friday even though the snow has been wrapping up,” Day told The Telegram earlier this week.
The Bonavista peninsula and Clarenville vicinity, meanwhile, are under a winter storm watch and Day says they’ll receive between 10 and 15 cm of precipitation. Winds will gust to 70 klicks from the northeast, shift to the northwest overnight and to westerly in the morning.
It's getting close...here's the very latest on the #winterstorm , its impact on your area: and the next snowmaker coming in tomorrow: #NLwx https://t.co/QGOXgbxcKF pic.twitter.com/T3D0gqO4oq
— Cindy Day (@CindyDayWeather) December 6, 2018
Check out Day's latest forecast to get a better idea on the timeline, snow amounts and what's in store for the days to come.
Weather historian Rolf Campbell, who gathers his statistics from Environment Canada data going back to 1874, says it could be the snowiest Dec. 7 in 100 years.
With 20cm of forecast snow, tomorrow could be #StJohns's snowiest Dec 7th since 1918. #NLWx pic.twitter.com/4c574OtcSL
— YYT Weather Records (@YYT_Weather) December 6, 2018
Ahead of the system, Air Canada has issued a travel alert to passengers schedule to fly in or out of the international airports in St. John’s and Gander. The airline has also revised its ticketing policy to waive the flight change fee for customers, space permitting.
Travel Alert – December 6: Gander (YQX), St. John's, Newfoundland (YYT). Details, Flight Status & rebook online. Change fees waived: https://t.co/iioc3PWIws.
— Air Canada (@AirCanada) December 6, 2018
Related stories:
First big snow storm of the season heading for St. John’s, Eastern NL on Thursday night
RNC warns Newfoundland and Labrador motorists to be prepared for snowstorm
