Late storm leaves overnight snowfall

Precipitation levels varied across the Island made up of snow, freezing rain and ice pellets

It wasn’t the storm as predicted, but Tuesday’s winter blast still brought bands of snow and ice to P.E.I.

“We saw the influence of a second centre of the storm, which contributed different precipitation levels and the time range of the storm,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Linda Libby.

The two centres caused snow to develop over New Brunswick and led to a later start to the system hitting the Island, specifically Prince County. Originally the storm was predicted to hit very-early Tuesday morning. The previous track was more eastern on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

The change of the orientation and track of the storm also led to varying precipitation levels across the Island, including West Prince. “Originally we had thought the majority of precipitation would hit Kings County, but instead of having one moving mass of precipitation, we had bands of snow coming which means there could be the same high levels of precipitations in different areas of the Island.” By mid-afternoon, there were reports of freezing rain and ice pellets in Charlottetown and Summerside, as well as the Magdalen Islands.

Wind gusts were around 90km/hour, just below windwarning levels with snow not beginning until the late afternoon and continuing throughout the night.

Libby predicted the system would change its course around midnight, signalling the system moving away from the Island, with snow stopping around the time most people were getting up in the morning, 5 to 7 a.m. Now Libby is keeping an eye on a possible weak disturbance that may hit the Island Thursday going into Friday, with levels of snow and rain.

“We’re not seeing any big systems for the remainder of the week. But I am keeping an eye on next week. We’ll still have those drifting and blowing snow conditions.”

The rest of the week will contain mainly chilly days, which may cause the Island to retain the snow that gathers. “That could make any upcoming systems or disturbances worse if there are high winds and blustery conditions.” Today’s high could break -10 degrees, possibly reaching around -9.

“It’s really a see-saw of different weather temperatures and conditions.”

MILLICENT MCKAY/JOURNAL PIONEER Traffic was scarce as winter storm conditions hit the Island late Tuesday afternoon. The predicted storm didn’t begin until later in the day due to two centres of the low-pressure system, which changed orientation, track and precipitation levels.