Slippery roads and school closures: Winter storm hits the Avalon
Stormy weather forced the closure of schools in parts of eastern Newfoundland on Thursday morning, and continues to make driving conditions treacherous for motorists.
Flights have also been affected.
There continue to be many arrival and departure delays and cancellations at St. John's International, Gander, Deer Lake and Wabush airports.
In St. John's, the city says GoBus Accessible Transit has been experiencing delays. They're advising customers to cancel their reservation if it's not needed.
Garbage collection in many areas on the Avalon have also been affected.
Schools
While most schools in St. John's metro area remained closed for the day, Memorial University and the Marine Institute in St. John's re-opened at 2 p.m.
Meanwhile, College of the North Atlantic campuses in St. John's, Seal Cove, Carbonear and Placentia re-opened late Thursday afternoon
Despite the storm, many businesses and government services remained open through the day.
More information on other school cancellations, closures and re-openings can be found at our Storm Centre.
Traffic
Slippery roads led to the RCMP and Royal Newfoundland Constabulary warning motorists to slow down while driving on the Trans-Canada Highway.
In a tweet, the RCMP reminded drivers to slow down in adverse weather conditions.
Police shut down one lane of traffic westbound as it attended to the accident, slowing down the commute for drivers.
A short distance away, a truck and car were reported to have gone off the road.
Warnings
Meanwhile, extreme cold continues to keep students home in parts of Labrador.
Officials in St. John's made the call to close schools for the morning in the metro region, while many schools in the Avalon region outside of the capital were announcing closures for the entire day.
Environment Canada issued a winter storm warning for the Avalon Peninsula on Thursday, as well as extreme cold warnings for central and western Newfoundland.