FREDERICTON - Thousands of New Brunswickers are without power after the province was blasted with an early taste of winter Sunday.

NB Power reported more than 12,000 customers were in the dark at one point today, with the majority of outages in the Woodstock area.

The first snowstorm of the season tracked across the Maritimes, prompting Environment Canada to issue snowfall warnings for central and northwestern parts of New Brunswick.

Residents braced themselves for as much as 30 centimetres of snow while the provincial government urged people to watch for flooding and postpone non-essential travel.

Environment Canada says the system is expected to track northward across the Gulf of St. Lawrence today, creating pounding surf in some areas.

The intense, low-pressure system has also prompted wind warnings across Prince Edward Island, where winds could gust up to 90 kilometres an hour.