A fierce storm descended on Atlantic Canada Monday, causing whiteout conditions and forcing delays in post-Christmas air and bus travel.

Winds gusting at up to 100 kilometres an hour began whipping across Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and southeastern New Brunswick late Sunday night.

By morning, frigid winds made it feel like -25 to -30 degrees to anyone who had to venture outside.

Shoppers in Halifax brave white-out conditions Monday.

The nor'easter coming up from the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. led airlines to cancel flights that were scheduled to leave Halifax Monday morning. The Charlottetown Airport later said it was shutting down until at least 6 p.m. local time.

Acadian bus lines cancelled all its departures during the day, and blizzard conditions shut down the Cobequid Pass on the TransCanada Highway between Truro and Amherst, N.S.

Metro Transit buses were on the roads in most areas of Halifax, but a few city buses ended up stranded in snowbanks. The city of Moncton called off its bus service at 10 a.m.

The heavy snow even kept a number of plows off the road in Charlottetown and parts of New Brunswick.

Marine Atlantic expects ferry service between North Sydney, N.S., and Port-aux-Basques, Nfld., to be delayed for 24 hours due to the high winds.

Managers of the Confederation Bridge linking P.E.I. and New Brunswick closed it to high trucks, automobiles with trailers, motorcycles and buses.

Some shopping malls chose to close their doors mid-morning, as shoppers looking for post-Christmas bargains proved scarce. They showed up in force at some Boxing Day sales in Halifax, however.

Nova Scotia Power put crews on standby to deal with emergencies in a province that has suffered major outages at least three times in the last 15 months.

Scattered outages were reported throughout the province later in the day, and the power was also out in parts of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Up to 50 centimetres of snow is expected along the province's eastern coast by the time the storm winds down.

Prince Edward Island and southeastern New Brunswick will get between 20 and 30 centimetres, forecasters say.