The East Coast was digging out Thursday after the latest in a series of winter storms — but there were few places to put all the white stuff.

Roads in Charlottetown were covered by snow, but traffic was back to normal.
(CBC)

"It was a lot worse than I expected. [I'm] getting tired of no place to throw the snow," said Terry Gautreau as he cleaned out his driveway in Moncton, N.B.

Wednesday's storm was the fourth to hit the region in a week.

The system dumped 20 to 35 centimetres of snow on parts of New Brunswick, more than 20 centimetres on Charlottetown and slightly more than 26 centimetres on Deer Lake, N.L.

Environment Canada's David Phillips said it appeared Mother Nature was taking aim at the region, with every storm born over North America leaving via the East Coast.

According to Phillips, 165 centimetres of snow have fallen on Moncton — more than four times the amount recorded at this time last year.

Eastern Canada plunged into deep freeze

The snow seemed to have tapered off for most of Atlantic Canada on Thursday.

But bone-chilling temperatures were in the forecast for much of eastern Canada, extending from Toronto to St. John's and deep into U.S. South.

"We're seeing these frigid temperatures all the way down to Florida. So if you think you can escape it, dream on," said CBC's Colleen Jones.

All of Florida was under a freeze warning and citrus growers spent the night trying to protect their crops from the potentially devastating drop in temperature.

In Canada, wind chill values fell to –23 C in Toronto, –31 C in Ottawa and –26 C in Halifax.

There were a few weather warnings issued by Environment Canada for eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, calling for blowing snow and poor visibility from Deer Lake to Gander.

Roads returning to normal

In Charlottetown, roads were still covered by snow in the morning but traffic was back to normal. Outside the city, though, some secondary highways were not expected to see snowplows until late afternoon.

Government offices and businesses shut the day before began opening their doors.

CBC's Brian Higgins said snow in some parts of Charlottetown reached up to his mid-thigh, but most people seemed upbeat about the heavy blanket of snow.

He said some expressed relief to see a real winter after so many mild ones, and there is also a warm spell in the forecast for next week.

With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press