Heavy snowfall, high winds close down P.E.I.

Public schools are closed Tuesday as are many businesses and offices after a blizzard blew across Prince Edward Island Monday night.

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UPEI, Holland College and many government offices are also closed for the day.

Poor visibility due to blowing snow across the Island had plows off the road for much of the morning. They returned to Prince and Queens County at about 11 a.m.

Maritime Electric was reporting 380 scattered power outages at noon. Earlier in the morning weather conditions had prevented crews from going out on the road, but crews are now out and working on restoring power.

CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell says 67 centimetres of snow fell at Charlottetown Airport, just seven centimetres short of the 74 centimetres that fell during White Juan in 2004.

Charlottetown Airport is the main snowfall measuring centre on the Island, and the city appears to have received the worst of this storm. Volunteer observations show 23 centimetres in Summerside and 27 in Miminegash. An automated measuring station in St. Peters recorded 29 centimetres.

The snow has now stopped and the sun is shining, but winds are expected to continue gusting up to 70 km/h until mid-afternoon, which could create problems with visibility.

This is the third winter storm to hit the Island in a week. Schools were closed last Tuesday when close to 30 centimetres of snow fell, and a combination of snow and rain on Saturday made getting around difficult.

Total snowfall doubles

In the last eight days, P.E.I. has seen as much snow fall as it had for the whole 2014-15 season.

As of Jan. 26 in Charlottetown there had been 116 centimetres of snow with just one major storm, which was at the end of November.

Since then, 117 centimetres of snow has fallen.

While the winter of 2013-14 has passed into legend as one of the snowiest in memory, as of Tuesday more snow had fallen to date this winter.

Another storm Thursday could bring a further 15 to 20 centimetres of snow to Charlottetown.