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© AARON HARRIS/REUTERSMark Hughes, right, and son Emmet Hughes toboggan during a snowstorm in Toronto on Dec. 14, 2013.
Flights were grounded at airports across the Maritimes on Sunday as a powerful winter storm blew through the region, knocking out power and causing dangerous driving conditions.

Winter storm warnings blanketed Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and most of New Brunswick as the intense storm blasted the provinces with heavy snow and high winds.

"It's a large storm that's affecting probably 80 or 90 per cent of the Maritime provinces," Environment Canada meteorologist Jean-Marc Couturier said in an interview on Sunday. "It's a large storm with a lot of punch, a lot of vigour."

Couturier said up to 30 centimetres of snow was expected for parts of Nova Scotia, with the snow changing to a mixture of ice pellets and freezing rain Sunday afternoon.

Southern New Brunswick was expected to get up to 40 centimetres of snow, while northern parts of the province would see up to 20 centimetres.

Up to 35 centimetres of snow was forecast for P.E.I. before the storm passed through Nova Scotia and tracked towards Newfoundland overnight Sunday.

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Dozens of flights at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, the Fredericton International Airport and the Charlottetown Airport were cancelled as the provinces grappled with winds up to 90 km/h.

"With the high winds, we are expecting a lot of blowing snow," said Couturier from Halifax. "Large snow drifts will form in certain areas and there's poor visibility."

About 600 Nova Scotia Power customers in Halifax were without power Sunday morning. Power was also knocked out for roughly 400 NB Power customers in the Sackville, N.B., area.

Ferry crossings between Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick were cancelled.

RCMP were advising people to stay off the roads or drive with extreme caution as blowing snow was creating limited visibility and slippery driving conditions.

The same storm system dumped 15 to 25 centimetres of snow on southern Ontario and Quebec on Saturday.

Dozens of flights through Toronto's Pearson and Montreal's Trudeau airports were delayed or cancelled.

Ontario Provincial Police said the weather may have also been a factor in a head-on collision that killed two people near Barrie, Ont.

There were a number of other accidents on snowy roads, including a 20-car pileup on the Queen Elizabeth Highway in Mississauga, Ont.