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Winter storm picking up after a slushy start

Winter storm picking up after a slushy start

#Snowmagedden2020 started as a bit of a wet firecracker, but is picking up steam.

From a worst-case scenario of 40 or more centimetres, it's now a prediction of 10 to 20 centimetres in downtown Ottawa and 10 to 15 centimetres around Pembroke and Maniwaki before it ends late tonight.

Ottawa got 2.4 cm of snow and 3.8 mm of rain before midnight, and it mostly rained in the early hours, but heavy snow started falling before sunrise.

A winter storm warning remains in effect for the entire region — except for Prince Edward County, where there's a wind warning of gusts up to 90 k/h, and Kingston and Belleville, one of a few regions in southern Ontario without a warning.

Environment Canada
Environment Canada

Kingston should only get five more centimetres of snow today on top of the snow and freezing rain it's received, with some of it blowing around in gusts up to 60 km/h this afternoon.

Easterly winds could gust up to 40 km/h in Ottawa switching to westerly winds gusting to 50 km/hr near noon.

The temperature will fall to -4 C by this afternoon in the capital, with an overnight low today of -12 C and a wind chill making it feel like -20.

Pembroke's wind chill should approach the serious frostbite risk threshold of -25.

The next three days look generally cloudy and a bit colder than normal, without much snow.