It's not even officially winter yet and N.L. is breaking snowfall records

Great news for people who love shovelling: Newfoundland and Labrador has already broken a few snowfall accumulation records and it's not even officially winter yet.

Yay?

"I kind ofhope that it doesn't continue," said Juliana Paul, a senior meteorologist at the weather office in Gander, with a laugh.

Paul said the St. John's metro area and Labrador in particular have been seriously overachieving in the snowfall department.

On Dec. 13, following the first major snowstorm to hit the city, St. John's International Airport reported a snow depth of 41 centimetres, she said.

That's a new St. John's record for that day: no other Dec.13since records began in 1955 had that much snow on the ground, Paul said.

The previous record for that day was 38 centimetres, recorded in 1958.

It also beats last winter by a long shot, she said: the most snow that was recorded on any one day in St. John's in2017 was 29 centimetres, in December.

But it's great for snow sculpting

On Saturday, Paul said there was a reported depth of 27 centimetres on the ground, which is ... a lot. The last time there was that much snow on the ground wasFeb.19,2017.

"It's not looking too good for us right now," Paul said.

But Mark Fleming has a different perspective. He was out in downtown St. John's making "large snowballs, because the snow is kind of wet and perfect for it."

Fleming said making figuresout of snow is a fun hobby and that he's made snow snails and snow turtles.He said he didn't see much difference so far in the amount of material he had to work with this year.

"It seems to me there's always a lot of snow."

Labrador smashing records

Not to be outdone by the townies, Labrador has already had a number of days with a metre of snow on the ground, Paul said.

"They've been cross-country skiing out there for, I think, over a month now."

This year's accumulation in Happy Valley-Goose Bay broke the existing daily records on Nov. 26 with 76 centimetres,Dec. 8 with 82 centimetres, and Dec. 9 with 93 centimetres.

The first day of winter is Dec. 21.

Congratulations! Or ... condolences?

With files from Sarah Smellie and Malone Mullin

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