It's a brutal weekend for weather in Central and Atlantic Canada as back to back storms strike in the midst of one of the busiest shopping and travelling weekends of the year.
Environment Canada is warning residents in affected areas of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada to consider delaying or even cancelling their travel plans as “road conditions could deteriorate rapidly" in the face of freezing rain and significant snowfall.
Freezing rain hit portions of southern and eastern Ontario on Saturday morning, leaving roads slippery and treacherous. In Quebec, police say difficult road conditions may have played a role in three deaths in three separate highway accidents.
"Lots of potent energy and precipitation associated with this system," CBC meteorologist Janine Baijnath said Saturday.
"We saw the first one make its way into southern Ontario last night into earlier this morning. And then the second band will start to push through into the evening hours and the overnight. So if you haven't seen any freezing rain yet in parts of southern Ontario, you'll have a better chance of seeing that into the overnight."
The storm has already led to dozens of delays at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. There are also cancellations and delays at Pearson Airport in Toronto.
'Very icy conditions'
A significant frontal boundary from Sarnia to near Hamilton and eastwards across Lake Ontario is expected to remain fairly stationary, hitting the region with freezing rain and ice pellets through to Sunday morning. Some areas north of the front are expected to get up to 20 millimetres of freezing rain.
The storm caused ice to build up on tree branches in Kingston, Ont. (Andrea Loken/Twitter)
Forecasters say travellers should be prepared for dangerous winter conditions and possible power outages.
"If you're not used to driving in very icy conditions, yes it's going to be a very slippery one," Baijnath said.
"You're going to want to take more caution when you're on the road, leave a lot of space between you and the car ahead of you."
In southern Quebec, forecasters say as much as 30 centimetres of snow mixed with ice pellets is expected to hit by Sunday morning.
“Northeasterly winds will intensify beginning tonight and greatly reduce visibilities in blowing snow, mostly near the St. Lawrence,” said Environment Canada.
“Two low pressure systems will, one after the other, give snow, ice pellets and freezing rain over southern and central Quebec today and Sunday … Significant amounts of freezing precipitation are expected and road conditions will be hazardous.”
Snow and ice pellets will become heavier as the second, more intense, system approaches starting this evening. Forecasters say those conditions will spread toward eastern Quebec during the day Sunday.
Significant snowfall
Meanwhile, the East Coast is bracing for freezing rain and ice pellets as Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick yesterday, warning of a potential winter storm.
Streets in St. John's, Nfld., were treacherous Sunday morning. (Anthony Germain/CBC)
A trough of low pressure will move over the region today.
As much as 25 centimetres of snow is expected to fall in some areas by Sunday.
There is potential for freezing rain, ice pellets and blowing snow tomorrow.
“Periods of freezing rain are expected over southern New Brunswick ahead of the trough today. As the trough shifts southward overnight, freezing rain and/or ice pellets will continue to affect much of southern New Brunswick, persisting until late Sunday evening,” Environment Canada said in a statement.
“Currently, it looks like the extreme southwest of the province will be the worst hit by the freezing rain. There are indications that these regions could see 12-plus hours and up to 30 millimetres of freezing rain.”
The same weather system is expected to lie over Prince Edward Island by this afternoon, drifting toward southwestern Nova Scotia by Sunday morning.
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