The first Maritime snowfall of the season turned roads white Monday, causing major traffic jams in Halifax during rush hour.

Environment Canada was predicting up to 15 centimetres of snow in parts of Nova Scotia before the storm's expected end late Monday.

RCMP in Halifax said there were 10 accidents within an hour after the snow started.
(CBC)

The snow was making the highways and roads slippery. In fact, RCMP in Halifax said there were at least 10 accidents in the first hour. A number of fender benders were reported throughout the day and many cars slid off the roads.

The bad weather backed up traffic in Halifax for hours.

Driver Ziad Elshurafa said he planned to head to the car dealership to get winter tires as soon as possible.

Elshurafa's Chevy Cobalt wound up parked facing the wrong way after he slid down a downtown Halifax street.

"It's been crazy," he said.

It got even crazier later for drivers in parts of Halifax when two power outages shut down traffic lights.

Nova Scotia Power blamed the heavy snow for the outages and officials said they expected the problem to be fixed by 9 p.m. local time.

P.E.I. tow trucks busy

In Prince Edward Island, tow truck companies were having a hard time keeping up with demand as vehicles slid off the roads.

There were several accidents and traffic was backed up in a number of areas, particularly on Route 1 east, out of Charlottetown.

"It's not too bad in the city," said Jack Devine, a dispatcher with the provincial Department of Transportation in Queens County. "As you get out of the city it's starting to cover over pretty good and get quite slippy in spots."

Devine said salt trucks were on the roads.

Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for Monday evening.