HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – Winter arrived with a windy fury Monday in Atlantic Canada, leaving residents to dig out from a thick blanket of wet snow that clogged roads and disrupted holiday travel.

Wicked northeasterly winds, gusting up to 100 kilometers an hour caused whiteouts, trapped people in their homes, and shut down shopping centers on the first day many stores were able to open after the Christmas holiday.

But on Monday, Atlantic Canadians woke to find a blizzard depositing up to 18 inches of snow, and winds piling up 3-foot-high snowbanks.

The gusts made roads hazardous and created nasty wind chill factors for the few brave pedestrians.

“We’re looking at bitterly cold wind chills … between minus 25 to minus 30 degrees,” said Mike Campbell, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Environment Canada also issued an afternoon warning for a storm surge that was expected to cause sea levels to rise about 1.5 meters higher than normal during high tide along the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Minor flooding was predicted for areas along the north shores of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The storm was a sudden shift in the region’s weather.

Mild temperatures and trace amounts of snow marked December for the majority of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and parts of southern New Brunswick.