February 14 - Winter storm warnings remain in effect for parts of Nova Scotia and much of Newfoundland and Labrador as a large snowstorm continues to trudge across Atlantic Canada.

The storm moved into Nova Scotia last night and dumped enough snow across the province to force the closure of many schools and delay the opening of some government offices.The storm arrived less than two weeks after a previous nor’easter dumped up to 150 centimetres of snow on parts of Cape Breton, prompting a week-long local state of emergency.

In eastern and northeastern Newfoundland, up to 60 centimetres of snow is expected in communities from St. John’s in the east to the Bay of Exploits in the west, and the winds along the coast are expected to gust at 100 kilometres per hour until Thursday night.

Across eastern Newfoundland, from the Connaigre Peninsula to the southern Avalon Peninsula, between 15 and 45 cm of snow is in the forecast with winds gusting at 80 to 100 km/h along the coast.

In northern Labrador, a prolonged period of heavy snowfall is expected from Postville to Makkovik, where up to 100 cm of snow is expected inland and over higher terrain until Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Air Travel Change And Cancellation Policies

Airlines including Air Canada, WestJet and Porter have activated their flexible change and cancellation policies.

Air Canada’s policy applies to February 14 flights to and from Sydney (YQY), St. John’s, NL (YYT), St. John, NB (YSJ), Moncton (YQM), Halifax (YHZ), Fredericton (YFC) and Charlottetown (YYG). Air Canada has also activated the policy for February 15 flights to and from Toronto (YYZ and YTZ), Ottawa (YOW) and Montreal (YUL) in anticipation of a snow storm tomorrow, as well as for St. John’s, NL (YYT).

WestJet’s policy so far applies to St. John’s, NL (February 14 – 16) and Halifax (February 14).

Porter has activated its policy for Halifax (February 14) and St. John’s, NL (February 14 – 15).