We are not out of the woods yet with this latest snowfall.
Nova Scotians are being told to brace for more through the day and into the overnight hours as a winter storm continues to move across the province.
Environment Canada meteorologist Ian Hubbard says conditions may have briefly eased Monday morning, but the system is far from finished.
“We’re still expecting snow the remainder of the day,” Hubbard said. “We’ll see the next heavy bout of snow push through and really start to add on top of the amounts we’ve already gotten this morning.”
Additional accumulations of 20 to 30 centimetres are possible for much of central and eastern Nova Scotia. “Certainly the eastern and northern half of the province… from Windsor to Halifax and everything to the northeast of that,” Hubbard said, adding southwestern regions could still see close to 20 centimetres.
On the alert front, Hubbard says most of the province remains under snowfall warnings, while winter storm warnings are in effect for Shelburne and Queens counties due to a combination of snow and higher winds that are expected to reduce visibility. “Basically everybody across the province has at least a snowfall warning in effect,” he said.
Temperatures will remain cold — generally in the minus-8 to minus-12 range — without any meaningful warmup during the system.
Hubbard cautioned against assuming the storm is winding down after the slower snowfall periods Monday morning. “It’s definitely not the end of the event,” he said. “We’ve got a long bit to go before it’s all completely done and out of the way.”
Nova Scotia Power ends power conservation measures
Nova Scotia Power has lifted its request for customers to conserve energy, saying demand on the grid has eased as temperatures moderate from the weekend cold snap.
The utility had asked customers to cut back on electricity use during peak hours Saturday and Sunday as heating demand surged. “More energy is needed by our customers for heating and that’s putting significant pressure on the system,” NSP said in its weekend advisory.
In an update on Monday, the utility said conditions have returned to normal after record use pushed the grid to historic levels. “We surpassed a previous peak demand record (2,454 MW) from 2023, reaching 2,481 MW,” NSP reported.
While there were some localized outages, NSP says the system avoided provincewide load-shedding measures that would have required short rotating power interruptions.
The utility thanked customers and neighbouring Atlantic utilities “for working together through this very cold weekend.”
Flight cancellations and delays stack up at Halifax Stanfield
Halifax Stanfield International Airport is reporting widespread delays and cancellations as the winter storm disrupts travel across the region.
By Monday morning, roughly three-quarters of scheduled arrivals and departures had been cancelled.
Airport spokesperson Tiffany Chase says the weather has made operations challenging, with twice the usual number of crews working around the clock to keep runways and taxiways clear.
In a morning advisory, the airport said “numerous delays and cancellations are currently on the board” and urged travellers to confirm their flight status with their airline before heading to the terminal.
Cancellations and closures
Schools
All public schools in Nova Scotia are closed except those in the Cape Breton–Victoria Regional Centre for Education.
Other closures
Many post-secondary institutions, recreation facilities, government offices and businesses across Nova Scotia and surrounding areas are also closed or opening late today due to the storm, with several municipalities advising residents to check ahead before travelling.
People should avoid going out unless necessary, and are urged to confirm the operating status of facilities and services with the appropriate organization before making plans.
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