One lonely car makes its way down Charlottetown's North River Road. (CBC)

A fast-moving winter storm closed schools and delayed openings for many businesses on P.E.I. Monday morning.

The storm was similar to one that struck the Island Thursday, dumping its load of snow very quickly. Snow began falling in Charlottetown around 4 a.m. AT and was mostly done by 7:30 a.m., leaving 10 to 15 centimetres behind.

"The western half of Prince County could get up to 20 centimetres, but in general 15 centimetres seems to be a ballpark figure," said Jeremy March of the Maritime Weather Centre.

"The winds are going to be gusting to close to 90 kilometres per hour for this morning and anywhere there's open spaces around the roadway there's probably going to be zero visibility at times."

Schools across P.E.I., including Holland College, were closed for the day. UPEI delayed opening until noon. Government offices and many businesses also delayed opening.

Dispatchers in Kings Country pulled plows off the road in the early morning because of poor visibility. In other parts of the province, plows delayed getting to work on secondary routes while they waited for visibility to improve.

The snow was just beginning to fall in the extreme west of the province at 6 a.m.

At the Charlottetown airport, the 6 a.m. flight to Montreal was cancelled. Confederation Bridge stopped high-sided vehicles from crossing because of the wind starting at 4:45 a.m. No power outages being reported.

About 15 centimetres of snow and ice pellets are expected to fall in the morning before turning to rain showers. There is a risk of freezing rain in the transition.

Temperatures will drop again in the afternoon bringing flurries. These will continue through Monday night and into Tuesday, bringing another few centimetres of snow.