Heavy rain soaks HRM, snowfall warnings remain for western N.S.

CITYnews halifax / By Dan Ahlstrand

A late fall nor’easter brought heavy rain to Halifax Regional Municipality on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

A special weather statement remained in effect Wednesday morning as the urban areas of the municipality were expected to see an additional 30 to 40 millimetres of rain before it tapers off Wednesday afternoon. Regions farther inland could see snowfall amounts up to 10 centimetres.

“Even though this has been largely a rain event for Halifax, it is a messy morning with wet roads and increasing north to northwesterly winds,” said 95.7 NewsRadio weather specialist Allistar Aalders. “That rain mixing with wet snow, especially the further inland that you are, but precipitation tapers off by late morning or early afternoon.”

An area of coastline from Herring Cove to Cape Sable Island was also under a coastal flooding warning as weather conditions were anticipated to bring large waves and pounding surge that were expected to interact with an “exceedingly high” tide on Wednesday morning. The national forecaster warned that minor shore and beach erosion was possible.

South Shore Regional Centre for Education, Forest Heights Family of Schools will be closed Wednesday, which includes Big Tancook Elementary. Progress conferences that were scheduled at these schools are also cancelled. Tri-County RCE schools in Digby County are closed due to unsafe road conditions. Worksites remained open.

Related:

• Storm knocks out power to thousands in Nova Scotia
• HRM braces for messy drive as rain and snow move in

Yarmouth and Shelburne counties remain open. All Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education schools are closed due to the weather. All Chignecto-Central RCE schools in Cumberland County, Pictou County, Colchester County and schools in the municipality of East Hants will be closed due to the weather forecast and road conditions and all classes within the Cape Breton-Victoria RCE were cancelled for the day.

A snowfall warning also remains in effect for Digby, Annapolis, Kings, Hants, Colchester, Pictou, Antigonish and Cumberland counties. Environment Canada said up to 10 centimetres of snow will fall in these areas, mainly inland and over higher terrain.

The snow in these areas was expected to be wet and heavy and could impact travel, particularly during the morning rush hour.

Northern Cape Breton remained in the bull’s-eye of the storm, with Environment Canada issuing an orange-level alert, the second most severe in its new colour-coded system. Parts of the region could see between 30 and 50 cm of snow.