Rain and Snow Continue Into Saturday
This evening’s forecast is sponsored by CU Financial Management
Expert financial advice across Newfoundland and Labrador, with an expanded office now open at 39 Pippy Place in St. John’s. Visit cufm.ca to learn more!
Rain has returned. Is anyone surprised? I’m certainly not, but then again, I shouldn’t be surprised by the weather! You could see it on the Post Taphouse webcam in Torbay just before 2:30 this afternoon, and the radar shows it nicely too.
This afternoon: rain, some of it heavy
As of 2:25 PM, rain covered much of eastern Newfoundland, and some of it was awfully bright on the radar. That tells me there may be some heavy rain around. Some ice pellets could also mix in for parts of the Burin and Avalon peninsulas, but that shouldn’t last long. The atmosphere is generally warming and it’s not overly cold, so as things warm up aloft, it should change over to rain.
There’s also some snow showing up on the map this afternoon, mainly over interior and western parts of Newfoundland. Most areas are still a few degrees above freezing, and so are the dew points, so if it’s precipitating where you are, it’s most likely rain, not snow. But elevation is the key: as of 2:30, it was raining in Gander and snowing inland on the Burgeo Highway over higher terrain, while it was still raining on the lower Bay d’Espoir Highway.
Tonight: rain moves north, wet snow inland
This whole area of rain is moving up from south to north, and we have a lot more of it to go before we’re all said and done. Around 6 PM, there may very well be some heavy rain over the Southern Shore, working its way toward the metro area. At the same time, some wet snow could be falling from the interior of Terra Nova National Park back through Grand Falls-Windsor, and through parts of western and southwestern Newfoundland.
I’ve harped on this for the last couple of days and I feel like a broken record, but it’s inland and over higher terrain. Not all areas will see the snow equally; we’re in a very borderline situation. Most of the precipitation lifts north by midnight, skipping east of the bulk of the Northern Peninsula, and a lot of it fizzles by Saturday morning as the low slowly moves north.
Some snow and rain will also fall over parts of Labrador overnight and into Saturday, especially on the mid and north coast, and southeastern Labrador will likely see a bit of rain and snow by tomorrow evening.
How much snow?
From now until 6 PM tomorrow (and for the Island, really just until late tonight or early Saturday), it’s not a whole lot. Some of the higher terrain could pick up around 5 cm. Some computer models put the snow a bit farther west, with hardly anything in the Gander area, while a couple highlight Gander, and the radar suggests that might end up being the case. I’ll be watching it closely. Most of it will accumulate on grassy surfaces, not the roads, as temperatures will be borderline at the very minimum.
In Labrador, once you’re west of Cartwright on the Trans-Labrador Highway, you’ll find some snow over the higher terrain, and west of Goose Bay back to Churchill Falls and Wabush, a couple more centimetres are on the go over the next 24 hours or so. On the coast of the Big Land, amounts right along the water aren’t tremendously high: the 10 to 20 cm is over the higher terrain, while the coast sees some rain.
How much rain?
For areas that don’t see snow, about 10 to 20 mm of rain is on the way between now and tomorrow morning. Where snow does fall, some of that will come as snow instead.
In Labrador, heavy rainfall amounts are possible between Makkovik and Hopedale, potentially 25 to 50 mm over the next 24-plus hours. Once you get inland, though, that will be snow, so if you’re heading into the backcountry, expect very wintry, heavy, wet snow conditions.
Tonight’s temperatures
Across the province, a lot of us will fall near the freezing mark overnight, except in the east and southeast, where lows will be between 2° and 4°.
The weekend
The weather improves somewhat for a lot of areas on Saturday, but it might not be until Sunday that it’s noticeably better. Saturday starts off quiet enough at 6 AM, but by Saturday evening another round of rain and snow moves into southeastern Labrador as our low swirls around northeast of Newfoundland. These lows have been very, very slow-moving this week. They’ve got to get on out of here already!
By 6 AM Sunday, another round of rain and snow showers moves in over the Gulf, affecting much of western Newfoundland, and that’s mainly where it stays through the day. Parts of central Newfoundland and the northeast coast could also see some rain or rain showers in the second half of the day. The weather finally begins to improve later Sunday and Monday.
Next week
Looking ahead, the pattern looks pretty benign across most of Newfoundland, and it’s the same story in Labrador: very quiet for most of next week. There are some signs of a colder system coming in after that, but we’ll worry about that when we get there.
Have a great Friday evening, and I’ll have updates for you over the weekend!
Don’t forget to…
📱 Get the Sheerr Weather App in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for my latest updates.
📺 Tune into Sheerr Weather 24, my 24-hour weather channel on YouTube.
🗺️ 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.