Severe weather looms in Maritimes

A barrage of severe weather will batter the Maritimes this long weekend, forecasters say.

Two low-pressure systems, one from New England in the United States, will pass by the Canadian East Coast, bringing freezing rain, ice pellets and snow, Environment Canada said Friday.

The coastal areas of New Brunswick on the western Bay of Fundy will get up to 25 centimetres of snow by Saturday, while other areas of the province will get five to 15 cm. Environment Canada warned of possible whiteout conditions on roads as winds whip up the snow.

Southwestern Nova Scotia was hit with freezing rain and snow Friday morning, and heavy freezing rain was expected to continue midday in Shelburne and Yarmouth counties before switching back to snow in the afternoon. Those areas, plus Digby, Queens, Annapolis and Lunenburg counties, will get 40 cm of snow by late Saturday, according to Environment Canada.

In Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton, the forecast calls for wind gusts of up to 110 km/h, while the Atlantic shore of Nova Scotia is expected to receive pounding surf Saturday at morning and evening high tide.

The nor'easter storm looks eerily similar to a 1992 system that dumped 160 cm of snow in the Moncton area, said Radio-Canada meteorologist William Bourque. With this kind of system, anything could happen, he said.