Southwest Shift Will Keep Bulk of Snow Away from Nova Scotia, 20-30cm Still Possible for Atlantic Coast
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Good news Nova Scotia: the track of the incoming Nor’easter that we’re expecting to hit tomorrow has shifted southward since the preliminary outlook we posted yesterday. There is still a little bit of uncertainty regarding the exact track, but it is becoming clearer the closer we come to the event.
This southward shift in the track means that the heaviest snow will stay offshore and only areas along the Atlantic Coast will see 20-30cm of snow as opposed to the entire province. Further inland, snowfall totals decrease rapidly with less than 5cm expected in the northern parts of the Annapolis Valley and Cumberland County.
The timeline for this storm remains mostly the same since yesterday’s update with the snow moving into the province from west to east beginning in the early afternoon Tuesday, reaching Cape Breton Island by the evening. The snowfall rates will increase up to 2-3cm/hr beginning in the early evening along the Atlantic Coast.
At the same time, the winds will also ramp up with widespread gusts in the 60-70km/h range and up to 80km/h along coastal areas. This heavy show and strong winds should continue for several hours overnight before the snow starts to dissipate from west to east through Monday morning and into the early afternoon in Cape Breton. As a result, blowing snow will be a concern overnight Tuesday.
We are still expecting some onshore flurries for the Northumberland Shore and Northern Cape Breton on the backside of this storm starting Wednesday afternoon and continuing through to Thursday afternoon. However, overall accumulations from this have also decreased and we are now expecting 5-10cm along the Northumberland Shore and up to 20cm for Inverness County.
We are going to continue to monitor the path of this storm as it makes its final approach into the Maritimes and we will issue an updated forecast in the morning if there are any major changes.
