Friday snow piles up to more than 20 centimetres in parts of the Maritimes

Snow falling and adding up in Black River, N.S. (Courtesy: Holly Hopgood-Chappus)

The Friday snowfall has ended up being higher than expected by several centimetres in parts of the Maritimes.

It looks like the system will finish with a broad swath of snow totals 10 to 20 centimetres across a large area of southern New Brunswick and the western half of mainland Nova Scotia.

There are some preliminary reports that parts of the Annapolis Valley and east towards the Enfield area picked up some amounts in the range of 20 to 30 centimetres. New Brunswick has finished with the accumulating snow and the remaining snow in Nova Scotia will ease to flurries by late Friday afternoon or early Friday evening.

A rough summary of the snow into early Friday afternoon. Unofficial and based on preliminary reports.

There was some incredible powder with this system and that fluffier snow allowed it to really add up, despite having relatively modest levels of moisture to work with. For example, the 15 centimetres of snow reported in Fredericton melted down to just 5 millimetres of water. That’s a near 30:1 snow to water ratio! A typical snow ratio is about 10:1, so the usual expectation out of 5 millimetres of water would be 5 centimetres of snow. Colder air in place favours a higher snow ratio and that certainly played out Friday in the region. On the plus side, the powdery snow should be relatively light by weight to clear out of the way.

While the snow is ending, some caution is warranted if travelling the roads Friday evening and into the overnight hours. The fluffy snow is more likely to blow around by the blustery north wind we will be left with. Areas of drifting and blowing snow are possible, especially where roads are present by open terrain, such as fields.

The dry or “fluffy” nature of this snow has resulted in some very high snow to liquid ratios -- 15 centimetres of snow in Fredericton melting to just 5 millimetres of water.

You will want to clear the freshly fallen snow as there’s no big warm-up to melt it away.

In fact, temperatures are going to remain cold -- below average even for late February -- this weekend and well into next week. The cold air is forecast to moderate towards the end of next week, which, of course, will be the start of March.

Bitterly cold air in place for the start of the weekend. Colder weather persists into next week.