An Active Week Ahead
This evening’s forecast is sponsored by:
A cool start this morning gave way to a cool afternoon across Newfoundland and Labrador, with many areas of the Province seeing the first flakes of the season between yesterday and this morning. In St. John’s, it was just over four months between today and the last time we saw snowflakes, back on June 1st.
Tonight will be cool as well. Temperatures across the board dip into the single digits, above and below the freezing mark, with lows near -2 in places like Springdale, Gander and Clarenville. Labrador is quiet overnight and downright cold, with temperatures falling to -7 in Wabush and -6 in Churchill Falls.
Wednesday starts off nice, sunny and quiet with high pressure in control, and temperatures recover somewhat nicely across Newfoundland, with highs around 10°C. In Labrador, highs reach 7 to 12 for most areas, but snow arrives in the west, where the high is only about 3. The southerlies increase through the day, though, as another area of low pressure arrives late in the day. It’s that time of year.
Rain, snow and Wreckhouse winds Wednesday night into Thursday
The satellite and radar picture today shows a lot of fair weather across the Province, albeit cool for this time of year. Down to the southwest, though, there’s a fair bit of moisture working from southwestern Ontario into northern New England and New Brunswick in the form of rain and snow. The bulk of it initially tracks to the southeast of us, but it begins to make a bit of a turn, and some of it arrives tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night.
Rain works across the Maritimes Wednesday and into southwestern Newfoundland in the second half of the day, and snow arrives in Lab West by Wednesday evening. With the low in that position, the rain increases overnight across much of Newfoundland, and snow becomes more widespread in parts of Labrador.
The Wreckhouse winds will pick up, too. A Wreckhouse wind warning has been issued for Wednesday. The forecast shows winds gusting close to 100 km/h Wednesday afternoon and evening, slackening off after midnight. Keep in mind that’s just an estimate, and Wreckhouse winds can often be a little higher than the forecast shows.
By Thursday morning, rain covers much of Newfoundland, with rain and snow in Labrador. As the low intensifies and passes northeast of Newfoundland, it cools down and the snow crashes toward the coast of Labrador. The higher terrain of western Newfoundland also sees a little snow in the second half of Thursday. It’s not like what we saw yesterday, as this one takes a different track, but the higher terrain will start to see it pile up a little. Things quiet down Thursday night and Friday, but that looks short-lived.
How much rain and snow?
Across much of Newfoundland, look for 15 to 30 mm of rain as this system moves through. We’re not looking at much snow this time except in the highest elevations, where a couple of centimetres is possible, especially up on the Gros Morne plateau and into the Tablelands. The setup just isn’t there for a repeat of yesterday.
In Labrador, southern areas like Mary’s Harbour and L’Anse au Loup could see 15 to 20 mm of rain, with lesser amounts as you go north and west, where most of this will fall as at least a little snow. Right now, there’s about 4 cm in the forecast for Lab City. Snowfall totals won’t be widespread outside of more remote areas, though there will also be some up toward the Torngats.
A more potent system for Friday into Saturday
Another, more potent system looks to move in between Friday and Saturday. As that low moves from where it’ll be on Friday to near the northeast of Newfoundland on Saturday, it’s going to intensify very quickly, reaching near 980 mb by the time it heads toward the Labrador Sea and North Atlantic Saturday morning. That’s a very intense area of low pressure.
Lows like this typically generate high winds, which this one likely will, along with heavy rainfall, which this one also will. There’s also the potential for heavy snowfall in parts of Labrador between Friday night and Saturday. If this comes to fruition, it would be a very significant snowfall for southeastern Labrador. That could change depending on the position of the low, but a setup like this would typically bring us into snowfall or winter storm watch or warning criteria. We’ll keep a close eye on it, but again, that’s not until Friday into Saturday, and right now it’s only Tuesday.
The 7-day forecast
Newfoundland: Rain and wind on Thursday, a cool-down Friday, then rain and wind for a lot of the Island on Saturday, except on the Northern Peninsula, where the rain may go over to snow. Another cool-down follows on Sunday.
Labrador: Rain and/or snow from Wednesday night into Thursday, then the potential for rain and snow, depending on where you are, Friday night and Saturday. Right now, Saturday looks like the day for heavy snowfall, if we get it.
To get all my updates like this, grab the app, or check out the brand-new website. Road cams, webcams, the Storm Centre and alerts are all right there on the homepage. I also have an app update coming later this week that will include a stream of my 24-hour channel right in the app. You can watch that now on YouTube, and if you’re already watching there, subscribe, follow along and enjoy the content!
Don’t forget to…
📱 Get the Sheerr Weather App in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
🗺️ Check out the Map Room to see all the latest weather observations for the Province.
🎥 Check out the Provincial Highway Cams to see 👀 what’s going on around our highways.