Blizzard hits eastern N.L., bringing heavy snow, strong winds
A winter storm rolled in to Newfoundland on Thursday, closing schools and offices throughout eastern regions of the province.
Environment Canada issued winter storm warnings for all areas of eastern Newfoundland, including the Avalon and Burin peninsulas.
Total snowfall and ice pellet amounts were expected to range between 15-40 cm before tapering off overnight. Winds between 80 and 110 km/h were also expected, and combined with the snow made visibility poor throughout the day.
The RNC were advising people to stay off the roads in the St. John's and metro area on Thursday, as snow accumulated and made driving dangerous.
Police also took to Twitter to ask motorists to "completely avoid" the Outer Ring Road highway, due to zero visibility and whiteout conditions.
A time lapse video shows the snow piling up outside of CBC studios on Prince Philip Drive between 7 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Travel woes
Some commuting workers were trying to get home for a few days off, but the severe weather conditions left them stranded at St. John's International Airport instead.
Macilreith has been at the airport waiting for a flight ever since.
"I gotta fly back here Monday, so if I'm not outta here today or tomorrow I might as well stay here," he said.
"We're hearing about all the big snow here, and if it's clear here tomorrow it's supposed to be snowy in Halifax, so it's kind of discouraging looking at all this snow everywhere that you can't get home."
Gary Gushue, City Wide Taxi dispatcher at the airport, said he's had a couple of customers looking for rides, but they're by no means busy.
Gushue estimates there are about 30 City Wide cabs on the roads, compared to a full fleet of around 100 vehicles.
He added that some people still have to get to work — but they don't want to, or can't, go in their own cars.
"The main drags, they're trying to keep them open as good as they can. There's a lot of heavy drifting," said Gushue.
"I just took a lady from Airport Heights over to the Health Sciences [Centre]. She was called in to go to work 'cause there's still people there waiting for appointments and stuff, so some stuff is still going through. And the seniors' homes and nurses and there's still people that have to get to work, and if they can't use their own car then they have to get a taxi."
Closures abundant
The province's English school district announced early in the morning that all schools in the metro St. John's region would be closed for the day.
Both Memorial University and College of the North Atlantic also announced they were closing for the day, including all classes and evening activities.
Metrobus public transit announced that bus services are cancelled for the day for the St. John's area.
While the weather was slowing down traffic and cancelling services around the Avalon, not everyone was staying home on Thursday.
The province's biathlon team Tweeted a picture, showing the athletes as they wait for a flight to head to the Canada Winter Games.
Weekend forecast
CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said Thursday's storm is set to last all day, and will be the first of three storms to hit Newfoundland and Labrador over the next few days.
Some parts of the Avalon, including St. John's, should see a mixture of ice pellets and snow later in the afternoon, but will change back to flurries by Friday morning.
Snoddon said the next system will roll through on Friday, but isn't expected to be as big as Thursday's.
The system will bring snow and wind to Newfoundland Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. Snowfall amounts should be in the 10-20 cm range, with central and western Newfoundland seeing the heaviest amounts.
After a short break on Saturday, yet another system is anticipated to hit the province Sunday night.
While snow amounts are not yet clear, Sunday's storm should bring snow and strong winds to eastern Labrador as well as central and western Newfoundland.