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PEI

Shades of Snowmageddon? Another storm possible Thursday

With the third winter storm in less than a week pounding P.E.I., Islanders could be forgiven for doing their best to ignore the periods of snow in the forecast for Thursday.

Snowfall this season above average for 4th year in a row

A snow shovel leaning against a wall.
Snow shovels will get a workout this week, but is it as bad as 2015? (Kevin Yarr/CBC)

With the third winter storm in less than a week pounding P.E.I., Islanders could be forgiven for doing their best to ignore the periods of snow in the forecast for Thursday.

"There could be a fourth [storm] on the horizon," said CBC meteorologist Brennan Allen.

"We're not getting any breaks here really in the Maritimes."

Allen said what happens with the current storm will affect what happens Thursday, so it's not possible to make any accurate prediction about any snow to come beyond Monday and Tuesday, where 30 centimetres is forecast for Charlottetown, with more in the east and less in the west.

Shades of 2014-15?

The chain of one storm after another in February will be all-too-familiar to people living on P.E.I. two years ago.

The winter season of 2014-15 broke a record at Charlottetown Airport, when a total of 549 centimetres fell.

This is what downtown Charlottetown looked like Feb. 5, 2015, and Snowmageddon was just getting started. (CBC)

But while there are similarities, in one important way this season has been very different, at least so far.

Both seasons got off to an early start and had a long lull in January.

On Feb. 1, this winter and the record-breaking winter had the same amount of total snowfall. Since Feb. 1 there have been two significant snowfalls with a total of 39 centimetres down this month. The current snowfall could double that.

The first 13 days of 2015 also saw two significant snowfalls, but they brought a total of 108 centimetres.

But what about Thursday?

We don't know yet what's going to come down this week, with one storm underway and one possible for Thursday.

But we do know that in 2015, a storm on Feb. 15-16 left behind 86.8 centimetres of snow at Charlottetown Airport, in what may be the biggest single snowstorm in P.E.I. history. White Juan the storm from the winter of 2004 dropped only 74.4 centimetres.

Yes, we're getting a lot of storms, but they were a lot bigger two years ago. To catch up with 2015 this week, Charlottetown Airport would need to record 147 centimetres of snow.

Let's hope Mother Nature doesn't take that as a challenge.

With files from Island Morning