Cleanup underway in N.L. after two-day winter storm

THE CANADIAN PRESS

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. A lingering storm system that dumped heavy amounts of snow on eastern Newfoundland over a two-day period gradually tapered off on Saturday.

The region’s residents began digging out from under 50 centimetres or more of snow through the northern Avalon Peninsula, which includes St. John’s.

“The total out of St. John’s airport is 71.8 cm over two days,” Mike Vandenberg, a meteorologist with Environment Canada’s Gander, N.L., office, said in an interview.

“The snow is tapering off and for the rest of the day we are looking at mainly cloudy skies with winds out of the northeast gusting to 70 km/h through the afternoon,” he said.

In all Saturday, about 5 to 10 cm of snow was expected to fall over the Burin Peninsula and 10 to 20 cm, with locally higher amounts possible, over the southern Avalon Peninsula.

Vandenberg said parts of the northern Avalon Peninsula did see total snowfall of between 70 to 80 cm. He said there were reports from the Bonavista Peninsula of 54 cm of snow, while the Gander area saw about 25 cm.

The City of St. John’s kept all facilities — including recreational spaces — closed on Saturday to allow for snow clearance. Transit buses also stayed off the roads, while stores and the city’s Avalon Mall remained closed. The storm was the second to bury eastern Newfoundland in less than a month.

“This is certainly an unusually heavy dump of snow for March for St. John’s,” said Vandenberg, who added the city’s average snowfall for the month usually ranges between 50 and 60 cm.