Chilly Arctic blast brings early taste of winter to much of Canada

Canadians from the Rockies to the Appalachians are getting an early taste of winter this week, thanks to a massive dome of arctic air that's spreading across the middle of North America.

This arctic airmass slipped down through the prairies over the weekend, bringing chilly weather along with it, but now that it's settled down over the US Midwest, it's spreading that 'winter cheer' into the east, giving some their first look at snow for the season.

In the wake of the cool, rainy weather that passed through southern Ontario on Monday, gusty winds behind the cold front blew streamers of lake-effect snow off of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay overnight last night, with some areas getting up to 15 cm of the white stuff by this morning. Those 'gifted' with the wintry preview, especially along the heaviest band that fell across to the north of the GTA, shared their 'good fortune' with everyone via Twitter:

Snow was falling across parts of Quebec as well, although not quite as heavily as in parts of southern Ontario. Still, for some there was the excitement at seeing their first snow of the season:

The rainy weather system is continuing on to the east, pushing mild conditions over the southern parts of the Maritimes, but some areas still had a shot of snow over the past couple of days. Regions of Newfoundland just to the west of the Avalon Peninsula had snowfall warnings yesterday, and residents of Gander shared the results:

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Cold, snowy weather isn't exactly a rare thing in Canada, especially when we're getting into the latter half of November, but getting these little hints from nature about the impending change of seasons is a good prompt for many of us to break out the winter clothes and change the tires on the car.

For those getting the early taste of winter now, it's not expected to last. That cold airmass over the Midwest is actually expected to swing around to the south, pushing temperatures across the eastern half of Canada into the double-digits by the weekend. However, through the prairies, that will mean more Arctic air being dragged along behind the airmass, causing temperatures to plunge down into the negative double-digits, while B.C. is likely to remain sheltered from all this mixed up weather.

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