Toronto gets more snow as city tries to keep up with clearing roads

Toronto is being hit by another round of snowfall on Monday as the city continues the process of cleaning up from last week’s storm.

The snow began in the afternoon and is expected continue through the evening. Another five to 10 centimetres of snow is expected to fall. 

"Southwesterly winds over Lake Ontario are expected to enhance the snowfall rates, especially for areas closer to the lake shore," Environment Canada said in their advisory.

"Poor weather conditions may contribute to transportation delays. Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions."

According to the weather agency, flurries will continue until about midnight. The temperature in Toronto is expected to reach a high of -5 C, feeling like -7 with the wind chill.

The temperature is then forecast to drop to about -13 C with wind chill overnight.

In a winter storm update, city officials said that crews are “ready to begin salting and plowing operations in anticipation of today’s forecasted snowfall while simultaneously continuing snow removal operations” from last week’s blizzard.

About 55 centimetres of snow fell on the city on Jan. 17, shuttering schools and causing major transit and driving delays. A week later and the city is still digging out from the snowstorm.

In a news conference on Monday, the city says its snow removal efforts are “well underway across many parts of the city” and that more than 17,000 tons of snow have already been removed from the streets

“The snow we received in just 15 hours last Monday was more than all the snow we received each January for the past two decades,” Barbara Gray, the general manager of transportation services at the city said.

“It was also more than the total accumulations for January, February and March of those months in 2020.

She said the clean-up has been especially difficult due to the freezing temperatures over the last week, which prevents the snow from melting.

The city said it would be ramping up its efforts to clear the roads, transit routes and school zones, focusing on hauling away snow from local roads now that many of Toronto’s major arterial roadways have been plowed.