New Brunswickers have begun digging out after the first major winter blast of the season.
Heavy snow forced the closure of a number of highways across the province for several hours.
RCMP reported treacherous conditions on snow covered roads with zero visibility. Environment Canada says winds gusts were as high as 90 kilometres an hour for Moncton and Saint John.
According to Mark Taylor, the spokesperson for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, all of Route 1 from River Glade to St. Stephen was closed. Only emergency and service vehicles were permitted due to the storm.
It was a similar story for sections of other highways in southern and eastern New Brunswick.
Most routes reopened this morning, but as of 6 a.m., NB 511 was still reporting snow covered roads with drifting snow in some areas.
According to Environment Canada Meteorologist Jean-Marc Couturier, more than 27 centimetres of snow had fallen in Greater Moncton as of 2 a.m. this morning. These are measurements taken at the Greater Moncton Romeo Leblanc International Airport.
The Saint John Airport received more than 35 centimetres, Grand Manan received 33 centimetres and Dorchester saw 36 centimetres.
The highest amounts fell in Fundy Park with 39 centimetres.
Only 14 centimetres of snow fell in St. Stephen, and ten in the Fredericton area.
Couturier adds once everyone has dug themselves out, be prepared to bundle up, “Cold air is going to flood into the Maritimes over the weekend. In the northern part of the province, we’ll get temperatures between -25 and -30 overnight from Monday to Tuesday.”
In the southern part of the province, the forecast is calling for lows of between -20 and -22.
“The wind chills will make it much colder than that,” Couturier says.
