New Brunswick is in for a mixed bag of weather this weekend as two systems target the province.
Jill Maepea, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the first will bring light rain and warmer temperatures on Saturday.
Maepea said temperatures will plummet as the second system moves in on Saturday night.
“With this system, we will expect the precipitation to change over to snow, freezing rain and ice pellets for pretty much everyone across the province and this will continue into Sunday,” said Maepea.
Northern parts of the province will see mainly snow, with up to 25 centimetres possible, she said.
15:56 EnvCanada issued statement #Weather #SaintJohn #NBStorm https://t.co/JeQXO5n5ka
— SaintJohn (@ECAlertNB23) January 9, 2020
But Maepea said their biggest concern is the potential for a prolonged period of freezing precipitation across southern New Brunswick.
“The area of freezing precipitation could last for 12 hours at this point, but right now, it’s too close to determine whether or not it’ll be ice pellets or freezing rain,” she said.
“Ice pellets are the more friendlier freezing precipitation of the two, those are the little hard ice balls that fall and accumulate on the ground. Freezing rain is raindrops that stick to everything, so that’s the more dangerous of the two in terms of causing power outages and whatnot.”
Maepea said winds are not expected to be a major issue with this system. The Fundy coast could see gusts up to 50 or 60 kilometres per hour.
She said the precipitation will move out quite quickly Sunday night, giving way to cooler temperatures.