When will the snow hit? Southern Ontario's next storm is on the way

Southern Ontario is about to get hit with another winter storm, just two weeks after a historic blizzard Toronto is still digging out from.

Environment Canada has issued a winter weather travel advisory for Toronto ahead of a system that is expected to dump 10 to 20 centimetres of snow on the city by Thursday morning.

The weather agency says that rain showers will transition to snow later this afternoon with the snowfall continuing through the overnight hours and into Thursday morning.

It is warning drivers to expect "hazardous conditions" on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, the TTC has said the service will be suspended on the Scarborough RT throughout the day on Wednesday due to the inclement weather, with shuttle buses running between Kennedy and McCowan stations.

The city is also pausing snow removal efforts that have been ongoing since the Jan. 17 storm to ensure that resources can be focused on clearing roads and sidewalks.

It has said that 600 snow plows, 200 salt tracks and 350 sidewalk plows will be available.

“What we have done is move all the plows and trucks and so on into positions around the city so they are actually positioned to begin plowing once it starts to snow. In the meantime they are starting with the brining and salting operations as soon as the rain starts to freeze so we will be as prepared as possible,” Mayor John Tory told CP24 on Wednesday morning. “They will be plowing later on today and overnight very aggressively and once the plowing is done they will return to the snow removal operation.”

Crews have hauled away nearly 100,000 tonnes of snow over last two weeks

The storm two weeks ago dumped 55 centimetres of snow on some parts of Toronto, which is more snow than the city typically receives during the entire month of January.

Since then crews have hauled away over 92,000 tonnes of snow to five dumping sites but that work remains ongoing and will likely be complicated by the latest snowfall.

“The good news is that this is not going to be as intense a storm as the record snowstorm we witnessed on January 17. This time the snow is falling over a longer period of time, which will allow us to salt and plow the roads effectively but it's still a lot of snow,” General Manager of Transportation Services Barbara Gray said during a briefing on Tuesday. “I know the last thing people want to see right now is more snow and that certainly includes myself and all of our crew members who have been working non-stop for the past two weeks but let me assure you that it's an all hands on deck ahead of the storm. We will be plowing as hard and fast as we can to ensure our roads are safe and pass and passable for the morning.”

Here’s a breakdown of this storm for Toronto. I’ll have more details on @CTVToronto #OnStorm pic.twitter.com/tK2RhU5DyN

— Michelle Jobin (@michellejobin) February 2, 2022

Gray said that the snow removal which has taken place to date has put the city in a “much better position” ahead of this storm than it would have been otherwise.

However, she said that there remains a significant amount of snow on some local roads and that it is likely that some curb lanes will be impacted by plowing operations.

“We are encouraging all residents who are able to do so to move vehicles that are parked on snow routes now if you can can to allow salters and plows to move more quickly through their operations,” she said.

While most of the GTA is only covered by a winter weather travel advisory at this point, Environment Canada has upgraded that to a winter storm warning for the City of Hamilton, where it says 20 to 30 centimetres of snow could fall by Thursday night.