Winter storm slams Maritimes, knocking out power and cancelling flights

VIDEO: (Dec. 22, 2013) Maritime drivers are being urged to stay off the roads. PEI, most of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick remain under winter storm warnings tonight. Emily Baron-Cadloff reports.

HALIFAX – A range of wet and wintry weather thrashed the Maritime provinces on Sunday, grounding flights and causing slick driving conditions on a traditionally busy travel weekend.

New Brunswick was blanketed in weather warnings. Up to 25 centimetres of snow was expected in northern parts of the province by Monday.

Environment Canada said the trough of low pressure brought a mixed bag of precipitation – snow, freezing rain and rain – to central New Brunswick.

“You’ve almost got every possible weather element,” said meteorologist Andy Firth from Halifax.

Firth said periods of freezing rain would persist across mainland Nova Scotia into Sunday evening, while rain was expected along the Atlantic coast and in southwestern regions of the province.

About 10 to 30 millimetres of rain and freezing rain was expected, he said.

“That’s a pretty significant amount,” said Firth.

Up to 25 centimetres of snow was forecasted for Prince Edward Island by Monday.

With just a few days until Christmas, dozens of flights at airports across the Maritimes were delayed or cancelled on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

RCMP in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. were advising people to stay off highways unless necessary, as multiple vehicles had slipped off roads.

About 4,000 NB Power customers in Rothesay, N.B., and St. Stephen, N.B., were without power Sunday afternoon.

But that number was dwarfed by the outages affecting about 350,000 hydro customers in Ontario after the massive weather system ripped through the region. Toronto Hydro said it could take up to 72 hours to get everyone reconnected.

Hydro Quebec said nearly 45,000 customers were without power in the Estrie and Monteregie regions on Sunday.

The weather conditions were suspected to have been a factor in three fatal highway accidents in Quebec on Saturday, and another in Ontario.