Warnings are in place across New Brunswick ahead of the first significant winter storm of 2024.
This latest system is expected to begin early Wednesday and continue throughout the day.
Areas including Saint John and Grand Manan are under snowfall, rainfall and wind warnings.
Other regions including St. Stephen, the Kennebecasis Valley, Sussex, Moncton and Southeast New Brunswick, Kent County, Grand Lake and Fredericton are under snowfall and wind warnings.
Jill Maepea, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said precipitation will begin snow early Wednesday in the southeast and progress eastward throughout the morning.
“We will see the snow intensity rates quite heavy in the morning and then we’re going to see that changeover begin in the morning in the southwest and then it’ll progress eastward into the afternoon,” said Maepea.
Up to 20 centimetres of snow is possible before the changeover and up to 30 millimetres of rain could fall in areas under rainfall warnings.
Maepea said there is also a risk of ice pellets and freezing rain as the temperature rises and precipitation changes to rain.
Strong winds will also be an issue with this system, gusting to between 90 and 100 kilometres per hour. Maepea said the strongest gusts will be along the coast.
Meanwhile, northern New Brunswick is under winter storm warnings, with up to 25 centimetres of snow and strong winds in the forecast there.
“By the evening, we will see conditions improving from west to east, and we won’t see that big drop in temperatures which we usually see,” said Maepea.
Calmer conditions are expected on Thursday and Friday, but forecasters are keeping an eye on another potential storm for Saturday.
Maepea said it is too soon to say how that system may impact our region, but she encouraged people to watch forecasts over the coming days.
Prepare for whiteout conditions and slower-than-usual travel. Plan to give yourself extra time, or delay altogether. Also, ensure you have your 72-hour emergency kit prepared.
We continue to refine our response based on the latest weather updates, and are ready to respond if outages occur.
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— NB Power (@NB_Power) January 9, 2024
Meanwhile, NB Power is preparing in the event of power outages from this system.
The utility says it continues to refine its response based on the latest weather updates.
More than 130,000 customers lost power when high winds tore through the province before Christmas.
It took crews more than a week to get everyone reconnected.
With files from Tara Clow.
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