March storm pounds the Maritimes

A messy March weekend is smacking the Maritimes with a lot of wind, rain and snow. It’s all part of a massive storm system that began Friday, south of the border in the northeast, and is now pushing through the Maritimes.

“It is all tied to the same weather system and is a large, very fast moving low pressure system," said CTV Meteorologist Kalin Mitchell.

There are two waves of wind involved with this storm system.

“The first will be Saturday night," said Mitchell, "south and southwest winds and Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island will be hitting gusts between 80-110 km/h.”

The strongest winds will be along exposed areas of the coast, with more high winds expected to arrive behind the storm on Sunday.

“The entirety of the Maritimes with west and northwest winds will get gusts reaching as high as 80 km an hour," said Mitchell.

Nova Scotia Power was not available for an interview but in a statement to CTV, the utility said, “We anticipate wind to be the biggest challenge, with gusts expected to reach 90 km an hour in some parts of the province. Our crews will be ready to respond as quickly and as safely as possible.”

The northwestern corner of New Brunswick has a heavy snowfall warning with expected amounts to reach 15 to 30 cm.

The rest of the Maritimes will get mostly rain which means melting snow and rainfall could cause some flooding.