Intense Flurries Catch Many By Surprise During Afternoon Rush
Posted February 19, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
If you were in the downtown core around the rush hour, you may have been taken by surprise.
A sudden streamer off Lake Huron driven in by strong winds created a temporary but very intense snowstorm in the city.
Flakes fell quickly and heavily for around two hours, driven by gusty winds that hit 50 kilometres an hour. The squall is the kind of weather event that isn’t easily picked up by radar and they can come on with surprising swiftness and linger for a while.
Folks in Vaughan and Scarborough were also hit as the flurries moved off to the east.
But for those driving home who suddenly found themselves on slippery streets, it was anything but a pleasant journey.
It follows a return to wintry weather that blew in late Wednesday night. There were off and on flurries all day and many woke up to roads, ramps and bridges in the northern part of the GTA that were more like skating rinks.
The afternoon activity left about two centimetres of accumulation. But some parts of the city didn’t get anything at all.
There’s a good chance you’ll be seeing more of the same on Friday. Overnight wind chills will make it feel more like -20. And while readings will recover to -4C, expect to dress for temperatures closer to -14, with wind gusts to 45 km/h.
Friday marks exactly a month until spring arrives. For many weary of the constant winter, that’s a day that can’t come soon enough.
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