Those looking for a white Christmas in southern New Brunswick may be disappointed.
An intense storm is expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds to the region on Friday.
A special weather statement remained in effect Wednesday for the entire province ahead of the storm.
Jill Maepea, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said this system will have widespread impacts.
“It won’t affect just one or two little areas or just the Maritimes. It’s going to be affecting a very large portion of Eastern Canada and into the northeastern United States,” Maepea said in an interview Wednesday.
Rain could begin moving into southern New Brunswick on Friday morning, though Maepea said there is still some uncertainty with the timing.
What is becoming more clear, however, is how much rain could fall. Maepea said they anticipate rainfall amounts approaching 50 millimetres, with the highest amounts along the Bay of Fundy coast.
“It’ll fall in a somewhat short period of time, looking at about an eight-hour period,” she said.
Winds will also be strong with this system, said Maepea, gusting up to 90 kilometres per hour. Grand Manan and St. Stephen could even see gusts up to 100 kilometres per hour.
Maepea said New Brunswickers should anticipate power outages as a result of these strong winds.
While the precipitation will fall as rain in southern New Brunswick, central and northern regions will see it start as snow and freezing rain before the changeover.
The highest snowfall amounts will be in northwestern regions, said Maepea, where up to 15 centimetres could fall.
She said temperatures will fall rapidly Friday night into Saturday as the storm begins to move away from the region.
“In terms of whether we’ll see a flash freeze, the wind tends to help dry surfaces, but any areas that will develop puddles or where the rain will pool, those areas will freeze,” said Maepea.
Flurries will linger Saturday throughout much of the province and into Saturday night for southeastern regions.
Christmas Day looks like sun and clouds with highs ranging between -3°C and -7°C.
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