Newfoundland digs out from record snow

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The Canadian province of Newfoundland Monday was digging out from a record snowfall of 15.5 inches in St. John's, weather officials said.

The city's old snowfall record for Dec. 6 was around 8 inches, set in 2002, which Sunday's storm easily surpassed, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The CBC said the snow, which was driven by wind gusts of more than 60 mph, tied up traffic Monday and forced residents to haul out snowblowers and try to navigate snow-packed roadways. Officials said a crane had to be brought in to pull a city snowplow out of a ditch.

Meanwhile, Environment Canada said Hamilton and Niagara in Ontario were in the path of major storm expected to hit Wednesday night into Thursday morning, bringing anywhere from 2 to 8 inches of snow.

"Weather prediction models are nearly unanimous in intensifying this low and tracking it over Lake Huron by Wednesday evening and then on to Southwestern Quebec by Thursday morning," the forecasters said in a special statement issued Monday morning.

Residents of Vancouver Island in British Columbia were dealing with the aftermath of strong winds that downed trees and caused power outages, The Victoria Times-Colonist reported Monday.