Winter is still officially 58 days away, but why have a countdown when winter-like weather is already here.

Daylight began with heavy wet snow falling over the Fredericton area and that quickly brought traffic to a halt.

Even tow-truck operator Randy Griffiths couldn't catch a break Wednesday, as he was caught in a long line of traffic while trying to respond to a growing list of vehicles that had gone off the road.

“I've been in line for 45 minutes,” said Griffiths.“People need to put their winter tires on.There’s four back here in the ditch all without winter tires.”

The weather fuelled demand for winter tires.

“Oh, I knew we were going to be busy,” said shop manager Brian Drummond. I knew the phones were going to be busy. Unfortunately, we were pretty much booked for the day.”

In fact, getting a winter tire appointment could take you a bit of time.

“We're booking almost into the middle of next month right now,” Drummond said.

Many had been hoping that winter weather would wait a little longer to show up.

The storm didn’t just bring snow. In Cape Breton, rain and wind whipped up the day putting people on watch for flash flooding and water pooling on roadways.

In Fredericton, most of the snow had washed away by midday.

But another weather-related problem continued to linger – power outages.

“That combination of heavy wet snow and the leaves are not good for the wires,” said Marc Belliveau of NB Power. “A lot of the trees are making contact with our wires.”

At one point Wednesday, about 2,400 NB Power customers were off grid.

“In one case in Saint John, a car went off the road because of the snow and broke one of our poles and caused an outage there,” Belliveau said.

Some schools buses in the Anglophone South School District were delayed due to the wintry weather Wednesday morning.

Both the Fredericton Police Force and New Brunswick RCMP warned motorists to slow down and adjust their driving for the deteriorating road conditions caused by the snow.

And although the police might not have specifically asked people to get winter tires on, it would be a good idea to book your appointment.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.