Significant Freezing Rain Possible on Tuesday for Parts of Nova Scotia; Up to 10-15mm of Ice Accretion

A complex system currently bringing crippling winter weather to parts of the US Midwest including record-breaking snowfall to Oklahoma and Texas along with prolonged freezing rain through the Ohio Valley. This system will track up the East Coast bringing heavy snowfall to our friends in Ontario and New England. For Nova Scotia, the story will be a prolonged freezing rain threat on Tuesday.

This system will reach Nova Scotia overnight Monday starting with some light freezing drizzle across the southern part of the province. To the north, we will see mainly snow and ice pellets with freezing rain starting to mix in during the day on Tuesday. Precipitation will continue to build through the morning with a fairly heavy swath of freezing rain ongoing across much of the province during the afternoon. We will see this precipitation come to an end overnight into Wednesday morning as the system moves out over Newfoundland.

There is some uncertainty on the exact track of this system which would dictate where the freezing rain line would be located. Some areas along the shoreline particularly the Yarmouth region could switch over to regular rain as temperatures climb above the freezing mark.

Current indications suggest the worst conditions will be found further inland and to the north including Kentville, Truro, New Glasgow and Antigonish. They could see anywhere between 8-16 hours of icing with up to 10-15mm of ice accretion. Significant impact to travel along with power outages are expected in this area.

For Halifax, there is disagreement on how fast you'll switch over to regular rain. Some models show a fast switch over around the lunch hour on Tuesday while others have it lingering into the evening until the transition over to rain occurs. So the potential is there for this storm to be quite impactful, but it's not guaranteed.

We’ll continue to go over the latest data and post a more detailed forecast including timing sometime tomorrow. Stay tuned!