Weary East Coast braces for the next storm as it digs out from the last

The snow just kept falling on Paradise.

“It started yesterday morning, slowed down last night and then picked up again and now we’re all snowed in again!” Darren Byrne said with a sigh Wednesday from Paradise, a small community outside St. John’s which he estimated got about 60 cm of snow.

“Yes my love, there’s probably eight feet of snow in the driveway in front of my car!”

The blizzard that walloped the Maritimes Monday and Tuesday took a second bruising swipe at eastern Newfoundland on Wednesday, dumping mounds of snow and unleashing strong winds on a region already weary from a series of powerful storms.

Meantime, another storm was heading for Atlantic Canada on Thursday, prompting Environment Canada to post storm warnings for much of western Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and southern and eastern New Brunswick.

The agency said another 15 to 30 cm could fall in those areas after it arrives sometime around midnight Wednesday and turns to freezing rain in some parts.

In Newfoundland, Byrne stared out at the growing piles of snow before heading out for the next round of snowclearing, already sounding defeated by the persistent pest. About 60 cm of snow had been dumped on some parts of the Avalon peninsula.

Byrne, a tractor trailer driver, said driving was treacherous due to whiteouts and snowcaked roads.

David Neil, a meteorologist with Environment Canada in central Newfoundland, said on Tuesday winds gusted to 110 km/h in areas like Cape Race, Burgeo and the Connaigre peninsula but had dropped to about 80 km/h in most affected areas.

He said the St. John’s area was expected to get more than 60 cm of snow by the time the system moved out later Wednesday, while Gander recorded about 30 cm, raising the snowfall there to almost 100 cm so far this winter.

Neil said it’s not unusual to get that much snow, but this system hung around for a long time, covered a wide area and is being followed in quick succession by another one.