Massive snowstorm that pounded southern Ontario, Quebec sets its sights on Atlantic Canada

The hits seem keep on coming, as parts of Ontario and Quebec are digging out from another round of snow that now has its sights set on the Maritimes.

Winter storm warnings were lifted for southern Ontario Monday afternoon, but not before huge amounts of snow had been dumped on the Golden Horseshoe. The city of Toronto received about 22 cm, while as much as 30 cm fell in Oakville, just west of Toronto. Coupled with high wind gusts, all that blowing snow cut down visibility on the roads, effectively shutting down parts of some highways, and causing school bus cancelations and school closures today.

Already the Ontario Provincial Police are reporting well over 100 collisions and the CAA servicing Ontario have received a whopping 3000-plus calls in a just the past half-day or so with wait times of nearly three hours. Meanwhile, Pearson Airport has reported over 120 flights were cancelled Monday with many more delays throughout the day of course.

Doing battle with all this mess is over 600 municipal snowplows that are out in full force in Toronto. However residents should be patient since Toronto Transportation Services says that it may take longer to get to the local streets. With over 5700 kilometers of roads city-wide that needs to be plowed, expectations are that it all will take until at least 24 hours to get to all of them.

With the snow tapering off at mid-day, the main roads should be in better condition by rush hour this evening. But secondary and local streets will continue be challenging for drivers heading home.

Meanwhile, folks in the Maritimes may be feeling deja-vu all over again as the storm that battered southern Ontario and Quebec is now making its way to the Atlantic Provinces. Already another round of blizzard, winter storm and rainfall warnings, with winds at least 80 km/h have been issued for various areas in all Atlantic provinces by Environment Canada today.

This weather system is expected to start impacting the Maritimes late Monday, bringing with it anywhere from 10 to 20 cm of the white stuff at its peak tonight. The big headache for residents may very well have to do with the current extremely frigid temperatures rising quickly – within a matter of a few hours – to above freezing, turning all that falling snow into heavy rain. Some forecast models are predicting as much as 40 mm of rain in just a matter of a few hours that could cause localized flooding.

And if that isn’t bad enough, temperatures are expected to plummet again, creating a flash-freezing event with possibilities of power outages, too. With most of the bad weather hitting the Atlantic coast in the evening and overnight period, school closures and bus and flight cancellations are expected for tomorrow morning’s rush hour, much like what we are seeing today in southern Ontario.

Snowplows in the Atlantic snow belt – places like Fredericton, Moncton, and western Prince Edward Island – will be kept busy as these regions may see a further dumping of 30 cm of snow adding to the snow experienced over the last week. Travel and parking along local streets will be made that much more treacherous since snow banks are already high.

No doubt Eastern and Atlantic Canada are in for a messy few days.