Good luck getting winter tires put on your car —even if you own them already.
Not only are the shops deluged with people wanting to switch over their tires, but there are few new winter tires to be had.
Kimberly White and her co-workers at Miller Tire were going heavy on the caffeine yesterday.
“We have no time for anything, it’s that bad,” she said.
“Everybody flew in here (yesterday) morning and they’re upset that we can’t do enough tire changes, and we don’t have enough tires for them.”
A new law in Quebec making winter tires mandatory means there’s a tremendous supply shortage. And White said tire manufacturers aren’t increasing production to keep up with the demand.
“It’s really affecting Nova Scotia,” she said.
The few winter tires they have in stock are in odd sizes.
They were already hopping with appointments when the first dump of snow hit bringing in a bigger flood of customers.
Speaking above the constantly ringing phone, White’s advice for motorists is to be patient.
“And keep trying,” she said.
When asked when they expected business to ease off a little, White said “January” and a coworker joked “summer.”
Bob Robichaud, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said we got about five centimetres Wednesday night.
Temperatures are sticking to the freezing mark in the next few days, which means this scattering of snow will be here for a little while.
“It might be slowly melting away. We’re looking at a warm-up after that so I don’t think the snow is going to last,” Robichaud said.
But if Wednesday’s dump of snow reminds you of all the back-breaking snow shovelling you did last year, Robichaud said this winter shouldn’t be so bad.
Precipitation will be above normal, but so will temperatures which means a slushy winter.
“It might be more of a mix than a lot of snow.”
