Winter storm warning in effect for Toronto ahead of Christmas weekend

Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for Toronto saying that travelling will become "hazardous" on Friday and Saturday, impacting Christmas travel plans for many this weekend.

The national weather agency issued the warning Thursday morning for most of southern Ontario as a mixture of intense winds, rain and snow is set to hit the region beginning tonight into Saturday.

Rain or snow is expected to begin late this afternoon or early this evening before transitioning to rain for many areas tonight.

Publicly-funded schools across the Greater Toronto Area have all indicated that they will be closed tomorrow due to the storm, taking the relatively unusual step of making the announcement one day prior.

“People will know that we do not do this often in the Toronto District School Board but when you start looking at this forecast and you hear some of the terms they're throwing around - generational storm, massive storm, every adjective in the book - based on that we felt why wait until tomorrow morning to make the decision. Let's give people as much notice as possible,” TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said.

On Thursday evening, WestJet announced that all flights to and from Toronto International Pearson Airport beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday had been cancelled.

 

Environment Canada says “damaging winds” along with blowing snow are set to develop Friday morning and continue into Saturday. Temperatures are also expected to plummet on Friday morning resulting in a potential flash freeze.

“Extensive blowing snow will develop Friday morning. Very cold wind chills are expected to develop on Friday and persist into the weekend,” Environment Canada said on its website.

Wind gusts of 90 to 100 km/h are expected tomorrow creating “widespread blowing snow which will significantly reduce visibility.”

Snowfall amounts of five to 15 cm is expected by Friday night.

Although that's not a huge amount of snow Environment Canada Senior Climatologist David Phillips says the mixture of weather conditions will create a "nasty" storm.

"I think for me, the concern is that the rain, it freezes, then you get some snow which camouflages that ice and underneath that winter wonderland look of the snow will be some treachery for walking, for driving, on parking lots and sidewalks and driveways and roadways," he told CP24 Thursday afternoon.

City crews are currently on standby and salting and plowing machines are preparing to head near their routes on Thursday in anticipation of the nasty weather set to begin this evening.

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“The weather is going to change extremely quickly, there’s going to be high winds so we have to try to get on top of it as quickly as we can,” Vincent Sferrazza, Director of Operations and Maintenance said at a news conference Thursday morning.

“We’re expecting the rain to turn over into freezing rain very quickly and we’re going to have to salt as quickly as we can,” he added.

• READ MORE: Ontario braces for major winter storm, threatening holiday travel plans

As a first defence, Sferrazza said crews are set to start salting Friday morning or earlier if they need to.

FILE- A line of snow plows clears the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto on Tuesday, Feb.12, 2019 after a winter storm hit the region. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

“We have maintenance patrollers working overnight, literally patrolling all the roads, taking weather conditions, and they'll be the ones that also help us in terms of if we have to go out earlier,” he said.

Sferrazza added that he expects crews will have to complete multiple rounds of salting and plowing, depending on snow accumulation.

“In the inter-city of Toronto, we’re expecting about five to 10 centimetres, that will warrant our snow plowing operations on the expressway or the arterial roads. Once we get to eight centimetres in the suburbs so to speak, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, we’ll have to plow the local roads as well,” he said.

Sferrazza said due to the expected severity of the storm all of the city’s infrastructure, including all roads, sidewalks, bicycle lanes and bus stops, will receive treatment, whether it be salting or plowing.

With blizzard-like conditions expected, the city is urging residents not to travel and stay home.

“If you must travel please try to use public transit, use the TTC. But the conditions in this situation will be very dangerous. So we're advising if you have to travel please (travel) very, very carefully,” Sferrazza said.

The hydro corporation says it is monitoring the storm and will have "additional crews available to work around the clock" to restore power as quickly as possible.

If Torontonians notice any downed powerlines, Toronto Hydro says to stay at least 10 metres back and report it immediately to 416-542-8000.

In addition, if residents encounter any downed trees or branches the city is encouraging them to report it by calling 311.

Later in the afternoon, the city confirmed the opening of three warming centres on Thursday night after initially saying that the facilities won’t be available until Friday evening.

The centres will be at Scarborough Civic Centre, Metro Hall and Mitchell Field Community Centre.

Earlier, the Shelter & Housing Justice Network called on the city to open warming centres immediately ahead of the storm.

“Opening the warming centres now will offer life-saving warmth and respite from the deadly conditions,” the group said in a letter.

“We cannot wait for over 36 hours for the centres to open. You have the capacity to help people survive this storm, and prevent frostbite and hypothermia.”

DELAYS, CANCELLATIONS AT PEARSON AIRPORT

Ontario isn’t the only province dealing with treacherous weather conditions as much of Western Canada is currently under an extreme cold weather alert.

A winter storm struck B.C. earlier this week, causing massive delays and cancellations at Vancouver International Airport, which in turn caused numerous flight delays and cancellations in Toronto.

WEATHER ALERT: Winter weather forecasted for tomorrow may impact operations at Toronto Pearson. Please check your flight status with your airline before leaving for the airport. #ONstorm #safetyfirst pic.twitter.com/MvuGUNeqHw

— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) December 21, 2022

More than 1,000 flights have been cancelled by Air Canada and WestJet over recent days due to the storm.

Toronto International Pearson Airport is advising travellers about more possible delays and cancellations today and this weekend.

"We are still seeing some ripple effects here from the Vancouver storm and I think it will be a few days, it could even go into the weekend, what we're seeing," Greater Toronto Airports Authority Spokesperson Tori Gass told CP24 on Friday.

Gass added that the airport expects to see up to 130,000 travellers on its busiest day of the holiday season, though the airport is not sure what day that will be.

"But we're not back to pre-pandemic levels so while this is really busy, busiest holiday since the pandemic began, we're still not at those levels. The airlines are still not running fully at what we were before," she said.

The airport is urging travellers to check the status of their flight with airlines before heading out the door.