Toronto digs out from early season snowfall record
Torontonians donned heavy jackets and winter boots on Monday and Tuesday, while city employees rushed to spread salt and sand across roadways and sidewalks.
Toronto is waking up to the most significant early snowfall on record, Environment Canada says.
With 13.6 centimetres on the ground as of Tuesday morning, the total accumulation is the most ever for this early in the year, the weather agency said.
The last time a similarly significant snowfall occurred this early in the year was nearly 70 years ago on Nov. 6, 1951, when the city was hit with 13.2 centimetres of snow, Environment Canada climatologist Dave Phillips said.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
“This is a big one,” Phillips said. “It’s a big storm for November. Usually, we get big rain events at this time of year rather than snowfalls, and this isn’t even the middle of November yet when it starts to come down lightly.”
About 10 centimetres had fallen by 8 p.m. Monday night.
Temperatures are forecast to remain fairly cold for this time of year. Tuesday is expected to be mainly cloudy with a high of -5 C, feeling closer to -15 C with the wind chill. There’s a 40 per cent chance of flurries in the afternoon.
The winter travel advisory has been lifted and there have been no major reported TTC delays nor school bus cancellations.
Morning traffic is moving slower than usual, so allow for extra travel time.
Local road plowing is scheduled to begin at noon and will continue all day into overnight.
The storm happened so early the city’s PlowTO tracking map was not yet up and running.
The map, which tracks the location of city plows, will be activated starting Dec. 1, Mayor John Tory said on Tuesday. In the days leading up to the storm, staff had not had time to prepare the map as “all their focus was on making sure the streets got cleaned up,” he said.
The TTC night called off a planned closure on the Yonge-University line on Monday due to weather conditions.
In other areas of the city, Toronto police reported a “significant” increase in vehicle collisions throughout the day.
OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said there were more than 400 car crashes Monday.
“Blame it on the drivers, not the weather,” Schmidt said.
With files from Jacob Lorinc and Ilya Banares
Osobe Waberi Osobe Waberi is a former breaking news reporter for the Star.
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