New Brunswick weather: Snowfall hits yearly average with 6 weeks of winter left
Environment Canada's David Phillips says Moncton saw most snow in January in 40 years
Some parts of New Brunswick have already broken normal winter snowfall totals, and more heavy snow could be on the way Wednesday, according to Environment Canada.
Yet another weather system is expected to form near the Great Lakes, bringing light snow to the province on Wednesday evening, the weather agency says.
The system will likely gradually pick up in intensity overnight and continue into Thursday and possibly Friday, it said.
"Latest indications show that the southern half of New Brunswick has potential for another heavy snowfall, however a shift in this still-developing system's track could significantly affect amounts received over any part of the province," Environment Canada stated in a weather warning statement Tuesday afternoon.
The public is advised to monitor future forecasts.
Saint John state of emergency
Saint John, which has declared a local state of emergency, has seen 166 centimetres of snow so far this winter.
Most Saint John streets were lucky to get one lane plowed by midday Tuesday, leaving homeowners like Dylan Arsenault to shovel part of his street by hand.
"Should get a little raise form the city, a tax break or something," he said.
On average, Saint John usually gets 162.6 cm between December and the end of February.
The latest blizzard Monday dumped about 30 cm on the city, pushing the city's total snowfall from three storms in the last week to 128 cm.
John Maguire was calling for help after beaching his van on a west side off ramp untouched by plows all day.
"I got halfway into that turn and I noticed it was plugged and I figured 'oh boy', so I stepped on her and I didn't make it through," he said.
Maguire's friends eventually came to the rescue and opened the off ramp for the city themselves.
At Motor Sports Plus the extreme parking lot snowbanks made for some rare on site product demonstrations for employee Chris Boyd.
"Everybody got nervous at the first of the year, that we weren't going to get any and now all of a sudden we've got tons people are excited," he said. "As soon as they see the machines they're like 'we've got to have it.'"
That includes the 46 cm winter wallop the Hub City got on Monday. Moncton has received 139 cm in the three storms in the past week.
Bathurst has received 97 cm so far, with six cm of that being from Monday's storm. By comparison, Bathurst usually sees 199.8 cm in an entire winter.
Figures were not immediately available for the Fredericton and Base Gagetown area.
100 cm in one week
David Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist, said Moncton's January snowfall total of 153 cm is the most for the city in 40 years.
"That would be alright if that was nicely evened out throughout the month, but 100 centimetres has fallen in the last week of January," he said.
Phillips says Moncton started out 2015 with just three centimetres of snow on the ground.
"And then of course February has continued as January has left off, and so you probably, I don't have the records here with me, but I daresay this is probably the worst week of snow in a snowy city in your period of record," he said.
Monday night's storm dumped more than 40 centimetres of snow on Moncton by Tuesday morning, which is on top of the 91 centimetres that fell in the two previous storms in the past week.
"Up to this time you've had about 60 per cent more snow than normal this winter. That includes December, which is probably one of the lightest snowfalls on record," Phillips said.
He says models show the storm pattern will likely continue for February.
"This is the kind of pattern — a little bit of a shot of snow and cold Canadian air right behind it, and then of course the snow is not heavy, wet snow so it gets picked up by high winds, and so you're shovelling it two or three times."
Phillips says the good news is that 2.5 minutes of daylight is gained each day, winter is more than half over, and models show summer will be warmer than normal.
"We think this week looks like it's going to be the toughest week of the winter in terms of cold temperatures … and then, beginning next week, we see temperatures that will be not melting, but maybe a little bit warmer than you'd expect for this time of year."