Winter storm makes for a messy Tuesday in western Newfoundland, Labrador

A storm system with heavy snow and wind is bearing down on western Newfoundland, prompting school cancellations and making for a messy Tuesday for a swath of the province.

Winter storm warnings from Environment Canada stretch from Port aux Basques to Hawkes Bay, midway up the Northern Peninsula, with snowfall warnings in place for the rest of the Northern Peninsula and much of Labrador.

"It's quite the busy day for the weather, for sure," said Brenden Sawchuk, a meteorologist with Environment Canada based in Gander.

The storm moved over the island Tuesday morning, prompting most schools along the west coast to close for the entire day, or send students home early. Between 15 and 30 centimetres of snow is expected, with wind gusting between 80 to 100 km/h.

Canada Post suspended its operations in Corner Brook and Stephenville around 1:30 p.m., citing safety concerns for its delivery workers due to the weather.  Poor road conditions were reported by the RCMP as far east as the Trans-Canada Highway between Port Blandford and Clarenville, where freezing rain was mixing in to create slushy roads.

Check the latest cancellations in the Storm Centre

Marine Atlantic cancelled its Tuesday crossings across the Cabot Strait, and warned that its Wednesday crossings may also be affected by the storm.

The storm will gather staying power as it moves along the Labrador coast, with the system expected to dump up to 45 centimetres of snow between Tuesday and Thursday for areas north of the Labrador Straits. That has the coast under a mix of snowfall warnings or winter storm warnings, with Environment Canada warning any non-essential travel should be postponed until it lets up Thursday morning.

"It's going to be more prolonged period of snow, so pretty well today into Thursday there's gonna be quite a bit of snow," said Sawchuk.

Snowfall warnings were extended into central Labrador by mid-Tuesday morning, with Happy Valley-Goose Bay expected to receive another 25 centimetres of snow by Wednesday night, on top of the 15 centimetres already accumulated in the Upper Lake Melville area.

While other parts of the island are being spared heavy snowfalls, much of eastern Newfoundland, from Terra Nova to St. John's, is under a wind warning, with westerly gusts near 100 km/h expected between Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon.

Those warnings also affect the Burin and Connaigre peninsulas.

High water levels are also expected in eastern Newfoundland and the northeast coast during Wednesday morning's high tide, although Environment Canada said Tuesday morning the chance of flooding in coastal areas due to any storm surge was low.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador