Nova Scotia

Halifax's snow clearing efforts to be hampered by ice banks

The superintendent of Halifax’s winter works department says Sunday’s snowfall will be a tough one to clean up.

'Snow banks are fairly high and they're difficult to move,' says city official

Even heavy snow equipment is sometimes no match for rock-hard snow banks in Halifax. (Jerry West/CBC)

The superintendent of Halifax’s winter works department says Sunday’s snowfall will be a tough one to clean up.

Darren Natolino says plow crews spent yesterday preparing for today’s storm, but there are some factors that will make cleaning up tricky.

“We do have a lot of ice still on a lot of side roads and obviously the snow storage is at a premium. Snow banks are fairly high and they're difficult to move because they're really not snow banks anymore, they're ice banks,” he said.

Natolino said if Halifax were to just get snow, that “would be a treat compared to what we’ve had the last few events.”

However, it doesn’t look like the weather gods will oblige his request.

Environment Canada says the snow will turn to ice pellets or freezing rain this morning and then turn back to snow this afternoon. The weather forecaster is calling for total snowfall amounts of 15 to 30 cm of snow in Halifax.

The overnight parking ban will be in effect from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Monday to help with the Sunday storm cleanup efforts.