CORNER BROOK, N.L. — While Monday was more lamb-like in the weather department, SaltWire Network chief meteorologist Cindy Day said that wouldn’t last long, as the lion is about to rear its head.
“There certainly is a March start to the month with a very powerful storm coming in,” Day said Monday afternoon.
She said most people associate the March lion-and-lamb weather proverb with March 1, but it actually applies to the first few opening days of the month.
The storm is expected to hit the southwest corner of the island mid to late evening Monday and will spread from there. She said it will reach the Avalon Peninsula by about 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. Tuesday.
“It’s pretty much a snow event because of the way the system is tracking.”
Day said there will be a brief changeover to rain on the Avalon on Tuesday, but it will be back to snow on Wednesday.
With the system being mostly a snow and wind event, the southwest coast is under a blizzard warning, and when the snow starts it will happen pretty quickly, Day said.
“The snow will push in, the wind will pick up, it will come around from the southeast and there will be gusts 60 to 80 km/h overnight."
The Wreckhouse area is also under a wind warning with gusts predicted to reach 140 km/h.
The wind will reach the Avalon on Tuesday, where there is also a wind warning in place for the northern portion of the Avalon Peninsula and the Bonavista Peninsula, with gusts 80 to 90 km/h and up to 100 km/h along the water’s edge.
The west coast, central and Northern Peninsula areas are all under winter storm warnings.
“So, that implies a good combination of the two, so a healthy amount of snow, probably 15 to 25 centimetres before all is said and done and wind gusts 60 to 80 km/h.”
Day said the wind will come in first from the east and then flip around to the west Tuesday night, and it will stay very windy Wednesday and Thursday.
“A very strong cold west-to-northwest wind is going to continue to trigger onshore snow along the west coast,” said Day.
By the time it’s over on Thursday the west coast could see a total of more than 30 centimetres of snow, but Stephenville stands out in that it could see 40 centimetres or more.
While there is no snowfall warning for the eastern area, Day said the total snowfall will come close to 15 centimetres for the Avalon and the east coast.
Students in many parts of the province are to return to in-class learning on Wednesday after just under two weeks of online instruction.
“They might want to extend that one more day. An extra day online is probably a good idea if they could pull that off,” said Day, adding that the wind will remain strong and there will be a lot of snow squalls, blowing snow and poor visibility.
“It’s not going to be pretty.”
As the system moves there will be a little break with temperatures around the -1 to -3 C mark. Another snow system for the Avalon, Burin and possibly Bonavista areas is expected to move in on Sunday.
Diane Crocker reports on west coast news. [email protected] | Twitter: @WS_DianeCrocker