Toronto and southwestern Ont. slammed with snowfall, freezing rain

Winter returned just days after the arrival of spring, creating some serious headaches for commuters Wednesday and causing a slew of crashes and school bus cancellations. (Full list at bottom of story).

The Toronto Catholic District School Board has cancelled its night school courses for Wednesday evening and Sgt. Dave Woodford said at one point during the morning, the OPP was dealing with a crash about every minute.

“There are far too many crashes. People are just driving too fast for the conditions, and they’re changing lanes rapidly,” Sgt. Woodford told CityNews.

“There’s a lot of ice packed underneath the snow,” he added.

There were spin-outs on Highway 400 and a couple of crashes on Steeles Avenue near Bayview, where conditions were reportedly very slippery.

A tractor-trailer jack-knifed around 5am on the QEW near Centennial Parkway. No injuries were reported and it’s not yet known if weather played a factor in that crash.

There were dozens of school bus cancellations and much to the delight of kids in Steeltown, all schools in Hamilton were shut down Wednesday.

Snowfall and freezing rain warnings are in effect across a large swath of southwestern Ontario. The freezing rain was forecast to hit the Windsor, Sarnia, Elgin, London areas, while significant amounts of snow are expected to fall on the Oxford-Brant, Huron-Perth, Waterloo-Wellington, Niagara, Halton and Peel regions.

Toronto was expected to get about 5cm, but as CityNews meteorologist Natasha Ramsahai explained, winds off Lake Ontario contributed to a heavier accumulation.

“We were anticipating about 5cm for Toronto and the 10-plus amounts focused around Hamilton and the Niagara Peninsula,” she said.  “(But) we got those easternly winds off the lake, so we got enhanced amounts off the west end of Lake Ontario.  Instead of getting the 5cm we were closer to 9-10cm in Toronto.”

Ramsahai doesn’t foresee things clearing up on our highways until well into Thursday.

“I think the snow will taper to flurries around 9pm tonight, and then flurries will linger until midnight, but I think you have to wait until about 3 or 4am before Hamilton to Niagara is clear and that QEW can really get clear with the snowplow operations.”

In the meantime, Porter Airlines is asking travellers to confirm their flight status before heading out to the Island airport Wednesday. You can do that here. If you’re flying out of Pearson International, you can check your flight status here.

The sun will return Thursday but temperatures will remain below seasonal through to the end of the week.

“After today, we’ll trade in the snow for some cold,” Ramsahai concluded.  “We’ll get some sunshine, but it will be well below seasonal for this time of the year.”

Weather Cancellations for Wednesday:

  • The Toronto Catholic District School Board has cancelled all night classes.
  • Evening classes at all Sheridan College campuses are cancelled, but campuses will remain open.
  • The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has announced closure of all schools and board administrative facilities.
  • Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic Disctrict School Board has closed all schools.
  • Peel District School Board has cancelled all buses to Caledon – schools remain open
  • Peel Dufferin Catholic Distric School Board has announced all buses in the Caledon and Dufferin County are cancelled
  • District School Board of Niagara: School transportation is cancelled, schools are open
  • Niagara Catholic District School Board: School transportation is cancelled, schools are open
  • Halton District School Board: Buses are cancelled, schools are open
  • Halton Catholic District School Board: Buses are cancelled, schools are open

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