CORNER BROOK, N.L. — Residents on the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador may want to put a snow scraper in their vehicles tonight and make sure they have some mitts ready for the kids.
A quick-moving system is going to bring snow to the island overnight before it changes to rain later on Oct. 27.
“The snow will probably begin around midnight along the west coast and then spread inland,” said Cindy Day, SaltWire Network’s chief meteorologist.
“And then there’s warm air rotating around the system, so I don’t think there will be any snow, or very little, on the Avalon. It’ll be rain showers there, but the snow will spread right through to Grand Falls-Windsor.”
“If you’re putting out Halloween decorations, maybe not have too many big bats with big wings.”
Day estimates a snowfall of close to five centimetres in the higher elevations for the western region and St. Anthony, and probably one to three centimetres around Grand Falls-Windsor.
Not all bad news
“For most the snow will change to rain early in morning. So, if you sleep in a little bit you perhaps won’t see much evidence of it at all. It’s not going to stick.”
Once the rain kicks in, Day said, it will warm up to about 9 C to 10 C in most areas and 13 C or 14 C on the Avalon.
“So, there’s quite a bit of warm air wrapping around that system. If it was a daytime event you probably wouldn’t get much snow at all.”
She said snow is likely because the system is coming in overnight when temperatures are lower.
And it’s not uncommon for this time of year — what would be uncommon is for it to stay, said Day.
As for the rest of the week, Day said there will be lots of wind right into the weekend.
“If you’re putting out Halloween decorations, maybe not have too many big bats with big wings,” she said.
On Saturday the Avalon will see winds from the north at 60 to 70 km/h and possibly some late afternoon flurries.
The rest of the island will see a daytime mix of sun and cloud with temperatures from 3 C to 5 C.
The west coast could see a little dusting of snow Friday night that will clear out on Saturday, but the wind will be a cool north one, with temperatures of 2 C or 3 C.
Moving into the fall, Day said it looks like it will be fairly quiet weatherwise, with not a great deal of precipitation.
“The jet stream seems to want to shift quickly and when that happens we usually get cooler temperatures pretty quickly, which seems to be the trend, but the weather systems are not in that flow.”
She said it may be cooler than usual, but pretty quiet without any big storms.
It’s too early to tell what the winter might bring, she said.
Diane Crocker is a west coast reporter in Corner Brook
