Snow budget in good shape
Meteorologist Cindy Day predicts unsettled, relatively mild spring
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality is expected to finish off the fiscal year with a surplus on its annual snow removal budget.
A winter of slippery conditions but few snowfalls has resulted in the CBRM having spent only 70 per cent of its roughly $2.5-million allowance.
Jillian Moore, spokesperson for the CBRM, said although there were only a few major storms in the municipality, road conditions were not always ideal.
“This year did not see as many plowing events as previous years, however, a significant amount of the spending this year was on salting with many events bringing snow, rain and freezing conditions,” Moore said Friday.
This winter season differs significantly from last year when several weather events resulted in CBRM overspending.
Money earmarked for snow removal are included in the municipality’s engineering and public works budget, said Moore, with any remaining funds used to create fiscal balance for the department by year’s end.
As part of its snow removal
efforts, CBRM’s winter fleet includes 24 loader plows, 20 sidewalk plows, 16 salt trucks, six graders, two tractor blowers and the services of several contractors.
Although Cape Breton has experienced a relatively mild winter, the wintry season is not over according to SaltWire Network chief meteorologist, Cindy Day.
Day is predicting another nor’easter beginning overnight
in Cape Breton on Wednesday. The island can expect to receive roughly five to seven centimetres of snow, followed by rain on Thursday.
Residents of southeastern New Brunswick and parts of Prince Edward Island can expect a different scenario with as much as 25-30 cm forecasted, said Day.
“It’s been a pretty easy winter for Cape Breton,” said Day. “A lot of the systems have tracked
west of Cape Breton, and so you flip to the warmer side of the system pretty quickly — so you would start with snow, change to rain and you’d get the ice pellet mix but you would never really get that heavy snow that this winter has really concentrated over western P.E.I. and eastern New Brunswick.”
Although there are a few more small blasts of snow predicted, spring in Cape Breton is expected to be relatively mild.
“It’s going to stay pretty unsettled because that jet stream is just to the west of Cape Breton,” said Day. “You’re going to continue to see waves of weak systems so it’s going to stay pretty wet through the spring but comfortable temperatures though.”
This year, major storms were recorded in Cape Breton on Jan. 4 and Jan. 30, which resulted in a higher than normal monthly snowfall amount for January. The two systems brought a combined 70 cm of snow to the island.