Wednesday, March 26th - the calm before the storm

It's a cool -9 this morning and if it was windier out here it would feel more like -15. We should reach a snowy high of -3 later today. It's the 30 to 50 cms of snow they are predicting this morning,  being blown around by 100 km/hr winds that will be a treat. With any luck they will send us home before it gets too bad.  All weather specialists have apparently been studying this impending 'perfect storm' and are already comparing it to 'White Juan' of 2004. Being relatively new to the area we haven't had that experience. We've sat through many fierce snowstorms in the past so how bad can it be??? I have a feeling we're about the find out! But as long as everyone is safely at home it should be fine. If it lasts all night long as they are predicting then Thurday morning will be the big challenge. Of course there is talk of it turning to rain so that will create some pretty messy conditions. Just have to wait and see what happens over the next 24 hours.

As long as it's somewhat cleared away by Friday morning. Lloyd has decided he would prefer to stay home as we don't know what kind of clean up will be needed after the storm. There is also the risk of the power going off and no one here to keep the fire going. But in reality, the big thing is the chicken eggs that are going into the incubator this weekend. He wants to monitor them and make sure everything works as expected.  That means I'm off on a little adventure all my own. But I don't mind, I have no problem traveling by myself.
As long as I have lots of tunes and snacks, I will be just fine. With Lloyd not going, I can now leave as early as I want. My plan is to be on the road by 6:00 so I'm at the bridge by 7:00 when it's daylight.That will put me into Riviere du Loup  mid afternoon, hopefully.

We had our dance class last night, followed by tasty treats at Daniel Brennan's. We worked quite hard in our class and it was still light out when we left, albeit a bit ahead of schedule.  We chose Brennan's because we had a really delicious dip and pita bread there a few weeks ago. We thought there was something else on the menu we wanted to try but instead we went with the same thing. Not a bad move as it's really delicious.

Other than that, it's a pretty quiet week - just waiting on the storm. Stay tuned for a further update likely on Thursday evening.

Found this information on the weather network regarding the pending storm and what we might expect:

Every single computer model points to an epic early Spring storm for Atlantic Canada within the next 48 hours. There is no disagreement about the storm's potential natural power and its impact on our daily lives.
The only change in the forecast will be minor adjustments to the storms track, timing, precipitation and wind velocity values.
Could it be as bad as White Juan? White Juan was a Nor’easter. It developed on February 17 2004, just off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Seasonally, that’s just a month earlier than today's storm.

Central barometric pressure on White Juan fell 57 millibars in 42 hours, that's explosive pressure change - it’s also a key indicator that forecasters use to determine the force or intensity of a storm.
Our storm is expected to drop 50 millibars over a similar period - Potentially as dynamic as White Juan!

In 2004 Halifax received over 88 cm of snow in a 24 hour period. Recording exact snow accumulation was difficult due to the powerful winds which remained steady at 80-100 km/h with gusts as high as 124 km/h - for a 12 hour period. Radar estimated that during those hours on February 19th, snow fell at a rate of at least 5 cm per hour.
That one event made Halifax the largest city in the world to get that much snow in one day!
White Juan also halted a everything in the east. Curfews were imposed in Halifax - where six million tonnes of snow needed to be plowed from city streets (it took 3 days to simply make them passable).
An unprecedented province wide State Of Emergency was declared for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. A 150 km wide swath of over 60 cm of snow with drifts measuring over 2 metres ran from the south shore of Nova Scotia through southern New Brunswick and PEI.
Transport was halted for days - some schools & businesses shuttered for a week!
White Juan could be thought of as a winter hurricane - though to be a hurricane a storm must form in tropical waters - it’s winds, storm surge, precipitation volumes and impact on people was indeed epic.

Hang onto your hats folks - it could get interesting!