Snowsqualls bring early taste of winter to parts of southern Ontario

Bands of lake-effect snow streaming off of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay overnight have left behind several centimetres of the white stuff through cottage country, in areas north of the GTA and in central parts of southwestern Ontario, with more snowfall expected for this morning.

Environment Canada issued a special weather statement Wednesday night, saying that chill northwest winds passing over the warm lake water were going to result in lake effect snow flurries over Grey-Bruce, Dufferin-Innisfil, Barrie, Orillia and Midland counties. Residents were advised that they could see slushy snow accumulations of about 5 centimetres by this morning.

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The weather followed through on that promise, not only across the counties mentioned, but also further to the southwest. A band of snow stretching from Goderich towards Kitchener had residents reporting everything from a few flakes, to flurries, to accumulations of wet snow by this morning.

Anyone driving in these regions this morning are advised to be cautious as roads could be slick due to wet snow.

The latest update by Environment Canada is calling for another 2 to 4 centimetres of snow on the ground this morning, across the areas already affected. Also, the bands of snow are expected to drift further south through the morning, changing to wet flurries or rain showers, which could affect northern parts of the Greater Toronto Area.

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This is the first taste of snow for southern Ontario this season, but it isn't the first for the country. This same weather pattern gave southern regions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba a blast of wind and snow over the weekend and into the beginning of the work-week. Some areas only saw a few centimetres of accumulation, just as a reminder that winter is on the way, but regions of southern Manitoba were hit with squalls off of the lakes that dumped up to 15 cm of snow.

The wet flurries are expected to continue in parts of southern Ontario over the next few days, but with temperatures creeping up a bit over the weekend, the accumulations probably won't stick around for very long.

(Radar image courtesy: Environment Canada)

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