Spring weather? Not for parts of Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes
Freezing rain warnings were issued Friday for a second day in southern Ontario as crews worked to clean up storm damage, and parts of Quebec and the Maritimes awaited a mix of wet snow and ice pellets.
The weight of ice was blamed for broken tree limbs and downed power lines in the north end of Guelph, Ont., and across the Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge area to the west. It's not yet clear how many households were without power Friday. Police were cautioning motorists to use caution.
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The ice storm moved from southwestern Ontario into the Greater Toronto Area around 10 p.m. ET Thursday. Freezing rain warnings ended around 8 a.m., but continued in areas north and east of the GTA.
At one point, more than 4,000 residents in the Hamilton area were without power.
A power outage affected about 5,600 customers in Toronto in an area bordered by Bathurst Street to Keele Street and Sheppard Avenue West to Wilson Avenue early Friday. Power was restored to the area just before 8:30 a.m.
Air Canada issued weather alerts for five airports it flies through, in Halifax, Montreal (Trudeau), New York (LaGuardia), Ottawa and Philadelphia, warning passengers flights could be delayed or cancelled because of the storm.
Freezing rain left sidewalks and roads coated with ice in the small city of Orangeville north of Toronto. Residents could barely walk down the street. Others scraped away thick ice from car windows.
"We'll keep the risk for morning freezing rain in the forecast from Toronto to Kingston and north from Parry Sound through the Muskokas/Kawarthas, including Peterborough, before the temperature starts to climb and we see a switch back to rain before clearing west to east later today," said CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland.
Winds were fierce Friday morning across southern Ontario with gusts in the 60-80 km/h range.
In Ottawa, an OC Transpo bus struck a hydro pole that had crashed into a ditch along Woodroffe Avenue. No injuries are reported. Road conditions were extremely slippery at the time.
For Ottawa and Montreal, Environment Canada is predicting 14 to 18 cm of snow, with the risk of ice pellets at times and the chance of freezing rain in the Ottawa Valley.
A winter storm watch has been issued for southern Nova Scotia in advance of a messy evening ahead with possible freezing rain, ice pellets and snow.
Wet snow or rain is predicted for southwestern New Brunswick early in the evening, with regional forecasts predicting anywhere from 10 to over 15 cm of snow overnight through Saturday.
