Halifax snow storm could take days to clean up

City officials in Halifax took the extraordinary step Tuesday of urging people to postpone non-essential travel for the next several days.

The latest in a series of winter snowstorms will hit the city by midnight, bringing heavy snow and high winds to parts of the province already struggling to find new places to store the snow.

The next two days will pose "serious challenges for crews clearing the streets and sidewalks," the city said in a release.

Superintendent of winter operations for the Halifax Regional Municipality,Darrin Natolino says this is as much snow as the city has seen since White Juan 11 years ago.

"We're going to get the same amount of snow, be it...spread over a few days, but ultimately....it's not going to be an easy go for the next few days," he said. "We'll definitely have a a lot of choke points, especially downtown and it's going to take a lot of work to get this cleared up."

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Natolino had a special request for drivers.

"Keep your car off the road. Try to stay off the road. If you don't have to drive downtown for something don't go," he said. "If you don't have to go to the grocery store, don't go. But the biggest thing is, is try to keep your car off the road and not just during the parking ban hours, I'm talking all day long."

"Really, keep it in your driveway, bring it to a friend's house, tuck it away in a parking lot downtown if you can."

About 30centimetresof snow fell Sunday; up to 30centimetresmore could fall by the end of Wednesday.

Based on the forecast, the city warned, "it will be next week before conditions start to improve."

Halifax Transit has taken the unusual move of pulling bus and ferry service ahead of the snowstorm.