Storm walloping parts of Newfoundland, with St. John's getting up to 85 cm of snow
Much of the Avalon Penin‐ sula, including schools and public transportation, is shuttered Friday due to an ongoing storm bearing down on parts of New‐ foundland.
Environment Canada has issued winter storm warnings for about half the island, stretching from the Avalon Peninsula to Buchans and the interior, as well as parts of the southern shore.
The weather service has forecast the St. John's area could see anywhere from 55 to 85 centimetres of snow.
According to the provinci‐ al school board's status re‐ port, schools across the is‐ land are closed either for the full day or for the morning with updates to come.
WATCH | Morning shov‐ ellers sound off on yet an‐ other massive storm:
Metrobus and GoBuses have suspended public trans‐ port services in the metro re‐ gion, and Memorial Universi‐ ty's St. John's, Marine Insti‐ tute and Signal Hill cam‐ puses, as well as its childcare centre, are not opening.
City of St. John's facilities and provincial government buildings in the city are also closed.
The storm is also affecting health-care services.
Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services has announced that all EasternUrban and Eastern-Rural zone administrative build‐ ings, as well as community buildings and health sites that don't provide a 24-hour service, are closed. The ex‐ ception is dialysis treatment centres at Mount Pearl Square and Clarenville's Coish Place.
Urgent-care services at Whitbourne's Dr. William H. Newhook Community Health Centre are also closed.
The Rooms, which is home to the provincial archive, museum and art gallery, will also not open and its planned public programs have been cancelled.
Newfoundland Labrador Liquor Corporation also won't open its liquor stores in St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise and Conception Bay South.
St. John's law courts, in‐ cluding the sheriff's office and family justice services, are also closed, as are the Autism Society's St. John's Re‐ source Centre and Basilica of St. John the Baptist.
The Public Service Credit Union and Scotiabank loca‐ tions in the St. John's area, Bay Roberts, Carbonear, Burin Peninsula, Clarenville and Bonavista also won't open Friday.
Shovels at work
Despite the snow coming down, some people ventured outside to start clearing away the snow.
Kyle McDonald, leaning on his shovel in downtown St. John's, said "it's definitely messy. That's the easiest way to put it. It's a lot of snow. It's coming down heavy and it's all wet underneath. So it may look pretty but it's dirty to be cleaning up."
The snow was so heavy he said he couldn't lift it, and in‐ stead pushed it, estimating a single shovel full feels like it weighs 40 pounds. He added it was a day to be careful or else cause someone could end up with a serious injury.
McDonald explained he was out shoveling because he needed to clear up a rental unit, but if it was up to him he wouldn't shovel until 6 p.m.
"But duty calls, it seems," he said,
He advised people to take their time if they're going outdoors.
"If you don't have to go out, stay in today. Definitely," McDonald said, nodding his head.
Geoff Pevlin, shoveling outside his home, said Friday morning it's "quite blustery" and conditions are likely to get worse, adding that the snow is heavier than he'd like.
He's also ready for the snow to be gone now.
"I mean, I'm used to it. We should be used to it, living in Newfoundland," said Pevlin.
He recalled being shocked when he heard the region could be getting 55 to 85 cen‐ timetres of snow.
"I was naively hoping that this was it for the year," he said. "It seemed to come out of nowhere as well. And [the forecast] kept going up and up."
On the Burin Peninsula, St. Lawrence Mayor Kevin Pittman said conditions in the town were "pretty white" as of Friday morning.
"We've got a fair amount of freezing rain and ice pel‐ lets on the ground. Like I will say eight to 10 centimetres ... it looks like snow from out there, but it's actually ice and ice pellets."
He added that power lines have ice on them but there haven't been any power out‐ ages yet.
Work crews have been out in the night and morning to make sure the roads were salted so people can drive.
"Even though it's a little slick on the roads, everything within the community is still driveable," Pittman said.
Wind is picking up speed, gusting between 60 to 70 kilometres per hour, he said, and windows on the sides of homes are covered in ice from the freezing rain.
"There won't be many people walking this morning, put it that way," said Pittman.
Most places in the area are closed, he said.
Forecasting weather to come
Justin Boudreau, a meteorol‐ ogist with the Gander weath‐ er office, said as of Friday morning the island is about one-third of the way through the storm, which is expected to carry on until Saturday morning.
In St. John's, he said, ice pellets should start to move southward in the morning and off the Southern Shore in mid-afternoon.
"After that, it's basically just a snowfall event moving forward," Boudreau.
"So tonight another 15 to 25 centimetres on top of that 20 to 30 from earlier today and two to four for Saturday. So it's just a little bit of extra sugar on top."
Boudreau said the ice pel‐ lets over the Burin Peninsula will probably change to just snow later in the morning, dumping 10 to 20 centime‐ tres of snow Friday.
The Clarenville area is ex‐ pected to get about 10 to 15 more centimetres of snow on Friday, after getting 20 to 25 centimetres Thursday night.
Saturday wrap up
Boudreau said by Saturday the conditions won't be as bad.
"The tail end won't be so bad because he'll be down in a sort of some more lighter snow. Still be pretty windy for most of the day but looks like the snow should taper off around noon on Saturday for sort of the northern area," he said.
Snowfall on the south‐ eastern Avalon should taper off by mid-afternoon, he ad‐ ded.
However, he said, with so many different types of pre‐ scription in the the mix it can be challenging to make fore‐ casts.
"It's pretty tricky just be‐ cause there's such a differ‐ ence between what areas would experience, sort of the just snow and then you've got to nail down that sort of snow-to-ice pellets [transi‐ tion]. But then you also have to nail down the ice pelletsto-freezing rain," he said.
"As you might expect, it doesn't really follow the bor‐ ders of our regions very well," he added with a chuck‐ le.
He also said the weather conditions are also making it challenging to get accurate information in some areas.
"It does look like we prob‐ ably won't be getting any good observations from the winds on the south coast be‐ cause most of the anemome‐ ters are all frozen over."
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC New‐ foundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our land‐ ing page.