Hello folks, yet another new forum thread for the old favourite, you guys over in the UK are hogging all the action it seems. Now, Eastern Canada is ready to enter the party on a wider scale.

So, we had the lake effect outbreak over the weekend and into the middle of this week and it did have an impact even away from the main snowbelt regions. We saw temps by day struggle to -4c and by night (last) to -12c, easily the coldest of the season so far. As for snow, some regions of the GTA saw quite a wee bit of snowfall mainly those NW of Toronto. In Hamilton, just a dusting to 2cm up here on the escarpment - we were close but not close enough for the wind to drive the lake effect bands Eastwards from Huron.

However, just to our West in London, well it got plastered! Over 70cm in the city centre and upto and through 100cm of snow in the outlying districts. I think the highest total i saw was in rural Southern Ontario just to the North of London where 163cm of snow had fallen. Not being the greatest at maths won't deture me from saying that's alot of snow.

Now, it looks likely that the GTA and main city areas across Southern Ontario will get their first major lying snowfall event of the season on Sunday as a lp system that will also effect the U.S. East Coast and behind introduce more lake effect snow and bitter temperatures heads E/NE through the Lakes. Here is Brett Anderson's latest snowfall take :

As you can see 8-15cm for Toronto/Hamilton (3-6") forecast but more fun is the talk that both areas (meaning Dundas) may see a higher concentration of snowfall overnight Sunday into Monday due to a backwash effect the storm will bring which will drive heavier snows across most of the GTA. If this happens, then a storm that may cause some problems for Monday's commute could become noteworthy and disruptive. Watch this space! In the short-term, an alberta clipper will bring light snowfall to most of Ontario on Friday again including the Lakeshore area, maybe 2" max (2-4cm) and with the cold temps this will have no problem settling. By tomorrow evening i should have the first proper lying snow of the season and it is only a start by the looks of things.

By the way, heard the madness that went on in Scotland over the past few days with the snow and ice. M8 closed for 48hrs in the East and over a foot of snow in parts of Glasgow. -16c apparently in some parts of Ayrshire too, absolutely amazing. And all that before Xmas! Speaking of which, i am looking forward to returning to Glasgow Airport on Thursday 23 December for 2wks back in the homeland with the folks, this time bringing the wife for some Scottish Xmas & Ner'day celebrations. Can't wait!

Off work now for the weekend so will try my hardest to update on the snow approaching Southern Ontario. Take Care.

As a former resident of London I remember the Lake dumps well. Most I ever saw in one go was an overnight fall of 3 feet. Astonishing stuff when it gets going.

This is what happens when you get serious snow. I've seen worse there, however.

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/12/07/16463346.html

Blimey that is some serious snow

Indeed and it nice to experience that in here if we don't get restrictions being imposed everytime.  When I went there in Jan 2005, I notice there more snow in Niagara region than Toronto as Toronto don't have a lake behind it only in front of it and need southerly or SE winds to deliver.  London have both lakes from the north and south so they easliy get it anytime.

Afternoon all,

Can't believe the thread was lost again - pesky cold spell causing all sorts of trouble!

Just in case you missed it Stewart I put an image of the snow in Crail last weekend and I'll take the liberty of reposting here:

It's been some cold spell with even me on the coast seeing 16 consecutive mornings of lying snow. Now with the thaw it's all disappearing amid a rash of burst pipes and broker gutters. Anyway, back on topic!

Nice article on the incredible lake-effect event that hit the London area earlier in the week. I've been looking at some of the photos - truly incredible stuff: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/12/08/snow-storm-ontario.html

And that's just kicking off what will be a very interesting rest of December I think with the pattern that's evolving. Henry Margusity has updated on the weekend storm for the Great Lakes.

More over the weekend...let's keep the thread from getting lost!

Indeed, save our thread!!! Amazing scenes over in Crail Graeme, pleased you got in on the act for once, burst pipes and guttering are sadly a consequence of a thaw. I hear the cold might be back next week for Scotland?

Anyhow, here it's -1c in light snow flurries with about 2cm having fallen due to the small clipper system that passed this morning and into the early afternoon. Check out the Ancaster cam for the latest, roads are fine thankfully at the minute.

Sunday's storm might get a little wet now unfortunately as the track is further North than last evening. Still some snow with it, more so on the back edge and Brett has updated his accumulations chart for 1-3" in Toronto/Hamilton. Still 24hrs away, keeping a very close eye on this one especially the backside where conditions for a time could become dangerous even by Southern Ontario standards with temporily blizzard conditions and a 20 degree drop in temps within 3hrs on Sunday night.

Enjoy the weekend folks!

Morning all,

Yes, you've been a little unlucky thus far in terms of snowfall Stewart. Fortunately we're only 10 days into (meteorological) winter! and tomorrow still looks pretty interesting!

Looks like Green Bay and Minneapolis are the cities to take the brunt of the Great Lakes snow storm: between 12 and 18" likely in the worst affected areas west of the Great Lakes. As the storm swings east tomorrow it will be parts of central Ontario that probably get hit hardest with 20-30cm of snow for places like Sault St Marie. Interesting though, there are winter storm watches out as far south as Halton-Peel (adjacent to Hamilton):

"An expanding area of snow is expected to move into Southern Ontario first thing Sunday morning as the low gets closer and deepens. As a result the snow may become heavy at times..With amounts of 15 to 20 cm quite possible by Sunday night.

The snow may mix briefly with rain over southern parts of the watch area extending from Stratford across Kitchener-Waterloo to Newmarket and Peterborough. There is also a possibility of ice pellets and freezing rain especially in the Ottawa Valley. However the precipitation should change to all snow by Sunday night as much colder Arctic air begins to blast in from the north causing the mercury to plummet." http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?on24

It's been rather chilly over in NW parts of North America last few days with temps as low as -55f in interior Alaska. That old favourite Old Crow in the Yukon saw a high of -41c yesterday...some 20c below average! As we know NE parts of Canada have had a (relatively) balmy start to winter, helping to feed our cold spell over here. While it's colder in Iqaluit right now (-10c) it's still well above average and looks like creeping up towards freezing by midweek. Pretty unusual when you expect highs of -18c at this time of year. Check out the latest snow/ice chart and look at the area around Iqaluit, and then compare it to last year on the same date.

November in Iqaluit came in about 10c above average in terms of mean temperature. December (so far) is even milder, with 4 days thus far recording above zero maximums and 2 days bang on 0c!

Evening all, quick update as i enjoy my Saturday night with some friends of ours over for a few 'light refreshments'! Storm is a bit of a mess and even Environment Canada are saying that! Not quite cold enough here this evening for snow straight out the bat at 1c, most of what fell yesterday is now slushy deposits on the ground. Probably looking as things stand as a rain to snow event and it will all be about when that snow starts for the GTA and Hamilton areas.

Toronto probably will get more snowfall that us out of this and also as a result, more disruptive as Monday arrives but we will see snow tomorrow and it will lie, hopefully for the City of Hamilton area before nightfall. EC go for just 2cm for this region which i'd take with a big dose of salt right now, we're more likely looking at 6-10cm by the time things get done.

Brett Anderson's update on the storm is here - http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/anderson/story/42881/saturday-night-storm-update.asp, but just in case you don't get the chance to view his blog, here's a pic from it of the snowbanks in London, Ont earlier in the week and all i can say is wow!!!!

Snow totals in excess of 100cm or +3ft covered London, Ont suburbs earlier this past week

Keep you posted tomorrow as to what happens, winter excitement has now begun in full!

I remember (years ago) being sent home from school in London when a blizzard was due to blow in. Total whiteout conditions ensued, although it temporarily cleared enough to make me realise I had been walking around in circles despite going through a residential estate. It was that bad.

Quick Sunday evening update on the winter storm which has so far been abit of a dud for the Lakeshore area with rain, cold rain all day which in the last hour has just changed over to snow. It looks like for the Hamilton area at least it was a later event to wintry weather than forecasted, i'm not sure about T.O. yet guess we'll hear in due course. Snow was falling all day up in Barrie, Ont. (one of my favourite places in ON!).

Snow now quite steady and should start to lie at this rate. EC predict 2-4cm which will be ultimately disappointing for here and they now have the flash freeze warning out for most of Southern Ontario including Toronto/Hamilton. Radar still looks quite good for a few hours of snow although it looks like it's the lake effect backlash kicking off so drier slots will form at some point i'd assume by midnight.

Going to be very cold tomorrow, -7c as a day high and i will try and post what the outcome is later tomorrow as to final snow totals.

Take Care

Hello all - a quick follow up to Stewart's post.

A very similar summary really - not the best storm for us so far, with nasty cold rain throughout the day. I was starting to get a bit fed up with this TBH, but around 1945 the temperature dropped and snow has now started. I'm much more familiar with things going the other way (snow -> rain) from the UK so it's a bit odd to see Scottish style weather transition into the white stuff in about 30 minutes.

Looking at the radar I'm not sure how much we'll get out of this. At the moment there is no more than a covering, so I can't really see more than a couple of cm, but at the moment I'll take anything . Amazing to think the difference that the lake effect brings - it's really not that far away from here that they have had over a metre of snow already this season.
The coverage at some of the ski hills is looking good so far too

Evening all,

Not sure how accessible our favourite thread will be this week - I think the TWO server is going into meltdown with the next cold spell looming for the UK.

That ended up being some storm in Minnesota/Wisconsin - even made the BBC news this evening with video of the Metrodome roof collapsing. Storm was a record-breaker for Minneapolis - details here.

It's well to the east now and boy has it turned chilly in southern Ontario: currently -11c in Hamilton and -13c Toronto with respective windchills of -20c and -25c this afternoon. Not sure how you guys faired for snow in the end: I see there's been light snow on and off but not sure on accumulation around the Golden Horseshoe. The Toronto traffic cams just show a light cover.

In contrast on the other side of the storm it's positively tropical in the Maritimes: currently +14c in Fredericton, NB, +12c in Charlottetown, PEI. The storm is not moving fast so it will be Wednesday before the colder air reaches here. There are plenty of rainfall warnings out.

Hello all - another quick update

Snowed fairly steadily until I went to bed last night. It's been snowing lightly on and off all day, but no huge accumulation. I would say we have got around 4-5cm, enough for a nice covering but nothing that will cause any disruption. So in storm terms nothing significant at all, but still enough for a proper snowy feel.

The temperature has dropped a lot. Currently at around -10C with a biting wind which I would guess puts the real feel more in the -15C to -20C range . Given it was above freezing just over 24 hours ago this is a bit of a shock. I was happily walking round without a coat yesterday morning, just a fleece jacket and umbrella. Now it's ski jacket and gloves time.

The low temps are keeping all the lying snow very fluffy which is good. Also since the snow fell on top of some earlier rain the pavements are powder snow on top of ice, which gives them a nice crunchy feel, although you have to watch your step. Just been for a very seasonal walk to look at some of the Xmas lights that people put up outside their houses (some folk really go to town on them round here).

Hello all, just in from work so this will be a quick post as dinner is in the micro! Currently -12c outside our house in Dundas expected to go as low as -16c tonight (Ayrshire temps matched apparently! - never thought i'd post that!). As Paul reported about 5cm of snow lying maybe 2 inches so a wee bit of a dud in the end for the first real storm of the year for the Hamilton area and for Toronto too by the looks of things. Only transport disruption to report was GO Transit's 45min delays on bus services from Toronto Union to Guelph & Barrie. There were some minor accidents as is usual for the start of winter even though we had small accumulations.

Here's some storm accumulation totals from EC :

Significant snowfall reports.
-------------------------------------------------------------
==weather event discussion==

The winter storm that passed through Ontario on Monday brought
significant amounts of snow to a wide swath from Lake Huron to
Georgian Bay through to Algonquin as well as parts of Northeastern
Ontario.

Also, an extended period of freezing rain had occured in parts of
Eastern Ontario.  Ottawa international airport had reported 5 hours
and 50 minutes of continuous freezing rain.

Below is a summary of the snowfall amounts of this event as of 7 AM
today (unless indicated otherwise).

-------------------------------------------------------------
Location                    snowfall amounts (cm snow)

Balaclava (ne of Owen Sound)    36
Coldwater (nw of Orillia)       21
Muskoka airport                 31
Beatrice (N of Bracebridge)     21
Tapley (sw of Peterborough)     20
Windsor                         15
London airport                  18
Waterloo                        14
Mount Forest                    16 (as of 10 AM today)
Wiarton                         30 (as of 4 PM today)
Bancroft                        14 (as of 10 AM today)
Algonquin Park                  16 (as of 10 AM today)

Remaining very cold through Tuesday and Wednesday with further flurries, gradually turning less cold but still below 0c as the weekend approaches.

Same here Paul re:xmas lights, it's one over your neighbour time around here. Guys house down the road from me looks more like Blackpool illuminations than a home - mad!

I'm also keeping a close eye on things back home Graeme and as you say it looks like Scotland will once again be plunged into an Artic wonderland later this week, amazing all this before Christmas!

Stay Warm folks!

I saw on my facebook friends photos that Minnesota had a fair dumping of snow from a friend at St Pauls.

Stewart  - Thought you may like to see this on great capture footage of snow tumbling off the roof-tops of buldings over here in Scotland - it is rare to see an avalanche in Edinburgh city:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGetBuqL3A

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11995440

Quite amazing scenes being played out across all media of this event just to the north of Sarnia, ON in Strathroy where complete sections of Hwy402 were closed due to whiteout conditions, winds were gusting 80kph in snow with just incredibly bad driving conditions.

In Dundas, we've had flurries all day and now what you'd term 'blowing/drifting snow' as the 6 or 7cm powder blows around in our fairly substantial wind. Conditions earlier in downtown Hamilton were pretty brutal, -10c in 50-65kph winds and you'd imagine just how cold that felt. Certainly reminded me that i live in Canada because it has been awhile since i'd experienced that cold!

Tonight, plummeting temps again to -15c before we see a gradual warming up if you can call -3c warm! More flurries in the forecast for Friday and the Weekend.

Take care

great pics there, amazing snow depths

Hello folks, better bring the thread back up the list with a post! I do understand the excitement the weather is generating over there, quite a spell of snowy and wintry weather forecast by all accounts maybe right through to Xmas, now that would be a nice homecoming present!

Currently -5c in Dundas approaching 9pm EST after another cold day, actually probably comparable to Glasgow right now (weird or what!) Snow grains and flurries on and off, but no additional accumulation to the lying snow of 7cm here. Good chance i think of some more substantial snow overnight and into Saturday as the lake effect machine which has had a wee rest today fires back up from a SW direction for tomorrow. EC comment in their forecast that bands of snow showers will be fragmentated and more scattered than normal and given Niagara & Haldimend have Advisories out, i reckon the Hamilton/Burlington area might just get a few as well.

Whatever happens, it remains cold into next week with further flurries. Main storm action this weekend is in the U.S. along both coasts. To the West, a vigorous Pacific system is set to hit SoCal with heavy rain and upto 10ft of Mountain snow in the Sierra's (fairly impressive amount!). To the East, a system - not quite a nor'easter moves up the Eastern Seaboard now looking likely to avoid the big I-95 cities although Boston might get in the act with some wintry weather. Parts of New England and eventually maybe into QB will see heavy falls of snow from this. Talking of which, maybe someone can find the link - but heard today on my lunch break from Fox News weather that Syracuse, NY has broken the record for the total amount of snow (and i'm sure they said month?) for December of 70.3 inches!!! That's 7ft + of snowfall in 17 days of December....wow!

Whatever your upto, stay warm and enjoy the weekend.

Well, hmm, compared with the chaos on the other side of the pond, there's nothing really exciting to report from Calgary.  December has generally been pretty cold and fairly dry.  Maximas in the minus single digits, minima in the minus teens for the most part.  No significant warmups, though we did get a Chinook for an hour.  Probably about 4-5" of snow on the ground, flurries over the last few days.

Feeling quite glad for forced air heating, all things considered!

This week looks like being a little warmer, and we may get a few days over freezing this week.

Peter

July 2010 - June 2011 Stats
Elevation: 1084m
Latitude: 51° 6' N
Warmest Temperature: 31.4c 26/08/10
Coldest Temperature: -31.2c 23/11/10
Days with thunderstorms: 8
Days with rain falling: 48
Days with snow falling: 21
Days with snow lying: 41
Maximum snow depth: 7" (17cm)
Current snow depth 5" (13cm)

Afternoon all,

I've been very negligent again on this thread but I suppose it's not that often we get to 'enjoy' real wintry conditions over here so not surprising all weather focus has been on my own back yard!

I have been reading on the impressive series of storms out west though. An update here from Ken Clark on Accuweather. The Mammoth Mountain website now boasts of 15 feet of snow on it's homepage. Inconceivable, really!

Back in southern Ontario things looks quite quiet and seasonable, with temps around about the average this week. I see Iqaluit is returning to less mild conditions this week, though still above average with maxes in the low negative teens celsius. Can't wait to see the monthly readings for December in the area. You can see the lack of sea ice on the latest NOAA map. And then compare to the same date last year. Interesting stuff.

Hi folks, quick post as i'm sitting in the Departure Lounge at Toronto Pearson awaiting my TCX flight to Glasgow. Never thought i'd see the day when i left Ontario warmer than Scotland, so i'm all prepared for the freezer that awaits when we land at 0505 local (hopefully!) tomorrow.

Past couple of days have been cold and below 0c with some flurries but nothing of note. Forecast for here continues cold with periods of heightened lake-effect activity over the next 5-7 days.

Will post when back in Ayrshire and give a contrast update!!!

Take Care