Southern New Brunswick has seen quite a bit less snowfall than usual so far this winter.

And a meteorologist at Environment Canada said there is no indication that will change any time soon.

Jill Maepea said many communities saw less than half of the snow they would usually see in January.

The Saint John and Fredericton areas would normally see about 64 centimetres of snow throughout the month.

Environment Canada said Fredericton picked up 34 centimetres while Saint John saw just 31 centimetres.

Moncton recorded 37 centimetres compared to the average total of 78 centimetres.

Maepea said this is a widespread trend that has been affecting much of eastern Canada this winter.

“We don’t really have a reason why. Some studies are saying it’s towards El Niño, but that usually affects western and central Canada more than it would eastern Canada,” she said.

“It just seems like the storm track is staying south and east of New Brunswick.”

The meteorologist said the rest of February looks somewhat quiet, except for a potential system next week.

Looking ahead to March, Maepea said it is too soon to say what could happen given the lack of snow so far this winter.

“We often see a variety of different storms during the month as we transition from winter to spring. Whether that happens this year or not remains to be told because of the lack of winter we’ve seen so far this year,” she said.

Some models are indicating an increase in precipitation in March, said Maepea, but it is hard to say how much of that will fall as snow.