Wintry pattern to continue

Snow on the way for Friday, Saturday with freezing mix in forecast for Tuesday

Don’t put the snow shovels and ice scrapers away just yet.

While Islanders are cleaning up today from the most recent wintry mix of snow, ice pellets and freezing rain, another system is bearing down on P.E.I.

Cindy Day, chief meteorologist with the SaltWire Network, said Tuesday a lowpressure system will bring snow to the entire province.

Day said she expects it will dump between 15 and 20 centimetres of snow between Friday afternoon and the middle of the day on Saturday.

“It looks like a good snow system,’’ she said. “I’m going with 15 to 20 (centimetres) pretty solidly on that system.’’

Winds will gust out of the north around 40 km/h to blow the snow around, while temperatures will hover around -4 C.

“There will be poor visibility Friday night and Saturday morning with a wind chill of -12 C on Saturday, with the snow wrapping up to flurries in the afternoon.’’

Today, Islanders are cleaning up after a mix of just about everything winter has to offer, minus the wind.

All schools across the province were closed as were the UPEI and Holland College campuses.

Snow fell over Prince County, but Day said amounts were not excessive.

Queens and Kings counties quickly transitioned from snow to ice pellets, freezing rain and rain on Tuesday

night, as temperatures were expected to climb to 4 C before plummeting to -2 C this morning. Winds out of the northwest were expected to make it feel like -12 C this morning.

Kim Griffin, spokeswoman with Maritime Electric, said there was a power outage on Tuesday, but it was not related to the weather.

A car accident on Sherwood Road in Charlottetown resulted in about 1,000 customers losing power for a couple of hours on Tuesday. Road conditions were said to be partially to blame for another car accident near Sobeys in Stratford around the middle part of the day. However, the latter incident did not result in any power outages.

RCMP Queens District Sgt. Craig Eveleigh said they had a couple of reports of cars sliding off the road by midday Tuesday, adding that he wouldn't be surprised if that number went up with freezing rain in the forecast for the

latter part of the day.

Day said she is also keeping her eye on another system that is expected to bring snow, ice pellets and freezing rain to the province late Monday into Tuesday next week.

“That’s going to be a messy one,’’ she said.

Day said she has noticed a lot of comments on social media platforms during the past few weeks, starting with people wondering if winter was ever going to begin to those now wondering if it’s ever going to end.

“It’s really difficult to please everyone,’’ Day chuckled, before adding a warning for those looking for a transition to spring anytime soon.

“It looks like we’re going to be in a wintry pattern for a little while longer,’’ she said, adding that this type of weather will likely extend into the middle of March.

DAVE STEWART • THE GUARDIAN Despite the stormy weather, a crew with Charlottetown’s water and sewer utility spent Tuesday morning conducting repairs on a water main on Emerald Drive, between Queen Street and Trafalgar Street.

CONTRIBUTED Cindy Day

DAVE STEWART • THE GUARDIAN A group of residents in Charlottetown spent a bit of time Tuesday afternoon digging out this car which was stuck in ice and snow on Nassau Street.

CONTRIBUTED This weather graph from Cindy Day, chief meteorologist with the SaltWire Network, shows a weather system that will bring snow to P.E.I., beginning Friday afternoon.