The Daily Gleaner/James West Photo
Will Scott of Capital Window Cleaning washes off the glass canopy of the TD Tower building on Westmorland Street in Fredericton on Friday afternoon.
Friday's storm, which dropped between 20 and 30 centimetres of snow on the Fredericton area, left many people as they woke up this morning facing a task that's become all too familiar this winter - cleaning out plugged driveways.
Prior to the latest dumping, Fredericton had 58 centimetres of snow on the ground, more than twice as much as the norm for end of February, which is 28 centimetres, Environment Canada reported.
The snowfall, which at times created blizzard-like conditions, led to widespread cancellations of events Friday evening and brought the city to a standstill.
For the most part, motorists heeded warnings given by police earlier in the day and were staying off streets and roads.
Although driving conditions were horrendous in and around Fredericton, no major accidents had been reported as of late Friday night.
Both the Fredericton Police Force and District 2 RCMP had four-wheel drives at their disposal during the height of the storm.
Dylan Gamble, manager of roads and streets for the city, said plows would be out in full force early this morning with a view of having streets cleaned by 9 a.m.
It may be mid-day, however, before sidewalks are open, Gamble said.
Operations at the Fredericton International Airport were also expected to be back to normal early this morning.
David Innes, president and CEO of the Fredericton International Airport Authority Inc., said all evening flights Friday were cancelled.
Innes said a skeleton crew was kept on overnight to ensure the runway was operable in the event of an emergency flight.
"They (airlines) are cancelling them (flights) now ahead of time," Innes said. "It seems that all the airlines in North America are doing the same thing.
"Rather than have people cluster at the airports, they just cancel the flights."
Fredericton Transit also shut down early Friday because of the weather with all the buses off the road by around 7:30 p.m. Manager Sandy MacNeill said he expected operations would resume early this morning.
As of late Friday afternoon, Acadian Bus Lines had cancelled some of its runs.
The Regent Mall, with the exception of Wal-Mart, along with the Brookside Mall and Kings Place all closed their doors early.
Publicity in advance of Friday's storm created a sense of urgency at city grocery stores, as people scrambled to ensure they had what they needed to make it through the storm.
Diane Peters of Peters Meat Market on Main Street said her store was hopping the last couple of days.
"People are getting lots of food and getting ready to be in for a few days," Peters said.
She said customers were buying a little bit of everything, such as milk and other staples.
"Usually when there's a storm, people get prepared, but this time there seems to be an added urgency."
Claude Cote, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said that while there's no more snow in the forecast for today, it will be much colder.
Brisk northwest winds now pounding the area will diminish as the day progresses and the temperature will drop to -12 C this afternoon.
"These temperatures will be about 10 to 12 degrees below the normal," Cote said. "Along with the brisk winds, that's going to produce a windchill of about -20 C. If there's anything good (about it), there will be a fair amount of sunshine."
The cold is expected to break Monday as a low-pressure system from the Great Lakes moves into the area. That will result in southerly winds and temperatures well above freezing.
"Unfortunately, we have some rain in store for Monday afternoon and Monday night," Cote said.
As a result of that system, March will be coming in as lamb and not a lion, the meteorologist said.
While winter is far from over, residents will be get an extra 25 minutes of daylight per week in March, said Cote.
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