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“I couldn’t get over it. I got up Saturday morning and I was like ‘Oh, my god.’ It was like loads of it. It’s crazy.”

The first “clean-up” weekend of the year had come and gone, with people mowing their lawns and raking, getting ready for summer, Ms. Granville said.

“Then, bang: This snow.”

For tough-as-nails Newfoundlanders, the forecast of snow didn’t come as a surprise — but the amount sure did.

Environment Canada meteorologist Jody Boyd told the CBC that normal snowfall in the month of May is just 13 centimetres, and the highest monthly total in the past was set in 1972.

“For the whole month, it was 49 centimetres, so we beat that over the span of 36 hours.”

Penny Moss, owner of Jonathan’s Pond Campground 15 minutes outside of Gander, said she’s never seen snow to this extent at this time of year.

A week ago Monday, her campground was fully booked, just as it was on May 2-4 a year ago. But by Friday, bookings were down to 30%, thanks to multiple cancellations by the campers not quite ready to pitch a tent in the snow.

Some campers (those in RVs) stuck it out, she said, though their campfires and marshmallow roasting plans were sullied by the snow. At least the kids were able to entertain themselves by building snowmen.

“People were just laughing at it, saying it’s unique because they’ve never experienced that before,” Ms. Moss said. “It’s one to remember, I must say.”

As Ms. Granville puts it, “you’ve got to take what falls out of the sky.”