Grab your raincoat as heavy rain, high winds hit, but brace for ‘whiplash’ | CBC News

Unusually high temperatures, high winds and heavy rain are plaguing much of New Brunswick on Monday.

More than 8,500 N.B. Power outages are showing on the utility’s outage map, many concentrated in the Kennebecasis Valley area. About 400 Saint John Energy customers are affected.

CBC meteorologist Tina Simpkin said this weather system is coming in quickly and will leave quickly as well.

“It’s going to bring a whole lot of wind and rain today, anywhere from 30 to 40 millimetres of rain across northern New Brunswick and around 15 to 25 millimetres of rain for southern New Brunswick, and that’s on top of what we already had,” she told Information Morning Fredericton. 

“We can call this weather whiplash and I think … it’s accurate because we go from 13 degrees to around minus five [Monday night.]”

Simpkin said as the temperatures drop, there will be a quick freeze, making for a difficult situation for road crews since the salt can’t be put down until the rain stops. 

According to Environment Canada, the warmest part of the province as of mid-morning Monday was Sussex, at around 16 C. 

Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John were close behind at 15 C, 15 C and 14 C respectively.

In the north, the temperature fluctuated from below freezing to above freezing throughout the night, said Simpkin, and according to the radar, snow is transitioning to rain.

Environment Canada rainfall and wind warnings are in effect for New Brunswick.

The rainfall warning, calling for 40 to 70 mm, is in place for all of New Brunswick except for Moncton and the southeast.

Wind warnings, showing potential gusts of 80 to 100 km/h, are in place for Fredericton, St. Stephen, Saint John, Oromocto, Moncton, Grand Manan and Grand Lake.

Multiple schools in the province were closed on Monday because of power outages, with at least one planning to close early.