Heavier snow here now following light snow most of the morning. Another inch on top of what we had last night so far. From the radar it looks like Hamilton is also getting another reasonable amount, and it will taper off in about an hour or perhaps a little more.

Agree it doesn't look like Toronto got quite as much as expected. Already the arguments are starting about whether the schools should have been closed... 

Hi folks, been helping most of the morning with the snowclearing duties from our street just to allow some of us to get out in our cars later should we need too. Before i write any more on what i experienced, here's some EC totals as of 1pm Eastern :

Location                   snowfall amounts (cm)

Windsor                             19
London                              18 (estimate)
Sarnia                              15
Waterdown                           23 (estimate)
Hamilton                            15-20 (estimate)
Balaclava (ne of Owen Sound)        18 (as of 7 AM)
Wiarton                             19
Orillia                             15
Coldwater (nw of Orillia)           15
Shanty Bay (near Barrie)            13 (as of 7 AM)
Toronto                             10-15
Trenton                             15
Peterborough                        12
Cornwall                            15 (as of 9 AM)

                           Wind gusts (km/h)

Long Point                          118
Erieau (se of Chatham)               83
Port Weller (near St. Catharines)    84
Burlington                           84
Windsor                              78
London                               68
Toronto Island                       67

Blizzard conditions here in Dundas from 10pm last night through breakfast this morning. We've seen heavier snowfalls before but nothing i can recall as nasty as this storm was and it is still snowing at the minute although as Paul writes, the radar is clearing finally. I'd say, we got 25cm of snow on our drive, really hard to accurately measure due to the wind. Highest wind gust was 77kph here, w/c down -21 and temps didn't rise quite as much as earlier predicted, we saw -6c as a high overnight....some forecasts called for 0c albeit briefly.

As for the schools closed, justified for here and Burlington i'd say but Toronto maybe not, however conditions on the 401 and QEW this morning even for seasoned travellers were challenging by all accounts. No-one in our street left for work this morning, sometimes you have to stand back and admire mother nature.

Here's some media coverage of the storm :

TWN latest video - http://www.theweathernetwork.com/video/forecasts

Spec.com - http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/480683--environment-canada-cancels-blizzard-warning

Globe & Mail - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/storm-hammers-southern-ontario-shutting-schools-and-delaying-travel/article1889709/

I have taken some pics and will attempt to upload shortly. Overall, i'm not disapointed around here at the snow amount, we could have had more of course from the lake, but it was some storm and an event to remember from the winter so far.

Enjoy the ski-ing Paul and btw never seen the LCBO as busy as that last night! The one in Ancaster i went into was queued 4 and 5 deep on every check-out. Made me laugh!!!!

Snowed in from Dundas, Stewart!

An additional update from EC confirms the higher snowfall totals at the west end of Lake Ontario:

Hamilton (west mountain)            28 (estimate)
Dundas                              25
Burlington/Ancaster/waterdown       23 (estimate)

Pretty much exactly in line with the reports from Paul and Stewart.

As for the LC reports...4 or 5 deep? Just as well they don't have them in Scotland!

Reminds me of Christmas Eve in Ottawa a few years back...

Extremely cold air right down into New Mexic now.
e.g.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=NMZ032&warncounty=NMC013&firewxzone=NMZ112&local_place1=Las+Cruces&product1=Wind+Chill+Advisory

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EL PASO TX/SANTA TERESA NM
1159 AM MST WED FEB 2 2011

...WINTER WEATHER OVER NEW MEXICO AND FAR WEST TEXAS WITH LIGHT
SNOW...WINDS...AND VERY COLD TEMPERATURES....

A VERY STRONG ARCTIC COLD FRONT PUSHED THROUGH THE REGION TUESDAY
AND USHERED IN THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES IN DECADES. AN UPPER LEVEL
DISTURBANCE WILL CONTINUE TO GIVE US FLURRIES OR LIGHT SNOW
THROUGH THURSDAY. OF BIGGER CONCERN WILL THE VERY COLD
TEMPERATURES. RECORD LOWS HAVE ALREADY BEEN SET WEDNESDAY AND WE
WILL SEE MORE RECORD LOWS ON THURSDAY MORNING AS MANY LOWLAND
LOCATIONS DROP INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS AND MAYBE A LITTLE BELOW
ZERO. MOST MOUNTAIN LOCATIONS WILL DROP WE BELOW ZERO. THESE LOW
TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH THE CONTINUED BREEZY WINDS WILL GIVE US
DANGEROUS WIND CHILL TEMPERATURES TONIGHT. WIND CHILL READINGS
BELOW ZERO WILL BE COMMON ACROSS THE AREA TONIGHT.

NMZ032-TXZ055-056-031200-
/O.CAN.KEPZ.WW.Y.0002.000000T0000Z-110203T1300Z/
/O.CON.KEPZ.WC.Y.0001.000000T0000Z-110203T1900Z/
SOUTHERN DESERT-EL PASO-HUDSPETH-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...LAS CRUCES...EL PASO...SIERRA BLANCA...
DELL CITY
1159 AM MST WED FEB 2 2011

LA Times says 2/3 of US badly affected by extreme winter weather.
This will be having an effect on economic activity.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-winter-storm-20110203,0,6658372.story

Hamilton (west mountain)            28 (estimate)
Dundas                              25
Burlington/Ancaster/waterdown       23 (estimate)

That sounds about right to me . Nothing truly epic but a good storm total.

Went for a long walk last night (to the pub and back ) and it's starting to look much more like proper winter now. Big, big piles of snow next to the drives. Smug people with snowblowers and tired people with shovels 

This morning we have cloudless skies so it should be a beautiful day, but cold with the windchill (TWN were going for a -15 windchill last night). Need to try and get some pictures taken, unfortunately I now have to go and get the train into Toronto...

Flurries over the weekend, possibly even creeping up to zero. Longer term we are looking at a possible cold snap next week and then a warmup later in the month. Brett Anderson's latest is here:

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/anderson/story/45288/snowstorm-tracking-eastward.asp

Today a day of reflection and what a storm that was! Some interesting facts involved also included a snowfall record for the date in Toronto, Ottawa & Hamilton according to EC, the first time since 1999 that all Toronto area schools closed on Wednesday. The OPP have described conditions for a time early Wed morning on Hamilton area highways as one of the worst ever experienced by their officers and yet incredibly the city has coped and the province has coped really well with snowstorm. Both Toronto & Hamilton back to somewhat of a normality today and even the fabled GO Transit after initial heavy delays on the Lakeshore lines on Wednesday morning got back to near normal by last night!

Final storm total for our house was 28cm now with level snow of 56cm with all the action over the past month. Snowpiles as Paul reported over 3ft some 4ft high, marvellous sight! Temps last night got down to -19c w/c -26 now at -5c and as Paul commented earlier rising further but probably not above 0c over the weekend. This is a proper Ontarian winter now and it's one of the reasons why i love the place so much.

That Hamilton Airport total also of 28cm just shy of the record 30cm seen on Feb 13, 2007 as some will recall, Day 1 of the 2 day Valentine's Day blizzard!

Here's some pics, some of which are from me and others i have found today elsewhere -

Webster's Falls, Dundas taken on Jan 30th before our big storm on Feb 2

Infamous shot you might have seen a few times, far different to high summer!!!

A Snowy night in Dundas

Ice chair down the harbour in Hamilton the day after the storm

Hamilton Harbour this lunchtime, very cold and snowy scene looking out over the bay to Burlington

Out the back of our porch in Upper Dundas, this for me is an iconic image from the storm

Sydenham, Ontario showing the a good picture of the snow amount!

One of our friends took this snap from out there back, shows just what 50 odd + cm of snow looks like! Anyone for a barbie?

Lol, Graeme at the LCBO! Popular place you know, especially at times of peak demand - i.e. snowstorms!!!!

Take Care folks

Remarkable cold far into Mexico

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/45325/mexico-cold-wave-chills-popula.asp

Weekend greetings - like the pics Stewart!

Winter has really been in charge over much of North America this last week with cold air stretching right down into Mexico. A nice summary of that here by Jesse Ferrell. I usually keep an eye on conditions in Austin, TX (great town). The highs on Wednesday and Thursday were 26f and 28f respectively, almost 40f below average. The same was true over large parts of Texas and New Mexico. Although a thaw started in Austin yesterday that merely led to a lot of burst pipes. Anyway, here are some pics from the local news station.

This weekend conditions have eased for most through the Midwest and into the NE and eastern Canada, but this is only temporary - more arctic air is on tap for next week before we may see a major pattern change around mid-month. This is something that most of the Accuweather crew have been talking about for some time now so if it does come off, kudos to them.

I have to say that at some points last week the GFS was modelling some of the coldest air I've seen in years into southern Ontario. It's still looking cold but not as extreme, going by the latest GFS: by Friday daytime highs may be around -10c in the Golden Horseshoe with overnight lows near -20c again. It's actually quite important to see seasonably cold air in eastern Canada at this time of year to support the winter festivals such as Winterlude in Ottawa and the famous Carnaval de Quebec. Important income generators for both cities.

Further west the Prairies and Alberta and balmy right now - as I type temperatures are way above average for an early February night - either side of 0c. This certainly won't last long with cold air blasting back in over the weekend making for more typical subzero values by Sunday.

Meanwhile Atlantic Canada is entering a very stormy phase with plenty of snow to come, mixed at times with freezing rain or rain near the Atlantic Coast. Up to 30cm for parts of NB, NS and PEI through Sunday with a winter storm warning for St John's, NF.

Plenty more to keep us interested next week after the excitement of the week just past! Have a great weekend.

Some great pics

Makes our cold seem a lifetime ago , I would for one would swap what I had for a couple of less intense spells later on in the season, it was too early for me

Quick Saturday Afternoon update to report more snow now falling in Dundas and most of SW Ontario. Initially this was meant to be a weak affair and light but an upgrade for once has meant EC now going for a further 5-10cm of snow across Hamilton, London down to Windsor maybe higher for St.Catharine's & Niagara with 5cm more likely for the Toronto area.

What a spell of winter weather and even more snow is forecast for tomorrow evening and overnight, maybe as much as another 10cm in some spots before the major cold arrives again as Graeme posted earlier. Anyone for -11c on Tuesday with a nighttime temp of -20c?

Snowy weekend regards

Very lucky .........enjoy

Reasonably heavy snow here for the last 30 mins or so. A couple of cm so far, so 5-10cm looks possible.  I hadn't really been expecting this and so haven't been keeping much of an eye on the forecasts. Should be a nice little top up for the existing snow base . I suspect the shovel will have to come out tomorrow morning, nothing like earlier this week though.

It's considerably warmer too, hovering around or just below freezing today, although it looks like getting colder as we head into next week. 

pfw how far are you from Plattsburgh- my Aunt lived there & my uncle owned the bowling alley- we used to go there every year- their house was right on lake champlain-

Steve

Well I have to admit I like the way Environment Canada took this one on the chin. Special Weather statement re yesterday's surprise snow in Southern Ontario:

AWCN11 CWTO 060422
Weather summary for all of Southern Ontario and the National Capital
Region issued by Environment Canada at 10:26 PM EST Saturday
5 February 2011.

==weather event discussion==
Mother nature threw a bit of a curve ball at Southern Ontario today. 
A forecaster's job is to weigh a wide variety of meteorological 
information including an increasing number of computer models which 
have improved significantly over the years. Most of this 'weather 
guidance' over the past few days predicted an intensifying low 
pressure centre would track south of the lower Great Lakes with a 
swath of snow barely grazing regions just north of lakes Erie and 
Ontario. However, new guidance emerged from most of the computer 
models last night which suggested a more northward track by about
100 km. Thus, Southern Ontario from Windsor through London and 
Kitchener to Toronto experienced heavier snow and snowfalls than 
earlier predicted. In spite of the newer guidance's more northward 
track, they still underforecast the amounts in some areas.

The table below shows a few snowfall reports received by Environment
Canada as of 10 PM today.

Location                   snowfall amounts (cm)

Windsor                              8
Tillsonburg                          7
New Glasgow (ne of Chatham)         14 (up to 5 PM)
Dorchester (E of London)            20
London airport                      18
Kitchener                           16
Hagarsville                         13
Thorold (S of St. Catharines)       12 (up to 9 PM)
St. Catharines                       9 (up to 7:30 PM)
Toronto Pearson airport             11
Toronto (Downsview)                  9
Toronto (East York)                  3
Vaughan                             11
Hamilton                             5
Trenton                              5
Carrying place (S of Trenton)        8
Cornwall                            10 (by 9 PM)

That same piece of energy is now bringing some heavier snow to Atlantic Canada - as the Charlottetown PEI
webcam shows right now. Amounts will be up to 30cm for some in PEI and NB while NS is dealing with a mix, including prolonged freezing rain for some inland/western counties.

Looks like another area of lightish snow moving through the eastern Lakes/NE States tonight into tomorrow morning.

Morning all

Good to see the EC statement Graeme . All took me by surprise too. I think we've had around 7-8cm this morning, nothing to write home about (although I suppose that's what I'm doing... ) but enough to bring out the shovels and snowblowers this morning again.

Here's a pic I took of one of the local streets this morning. It's a bit dark but gives an impression of how much snow is now piled up everywhere. This is one of the more used minor roads, it's usually ploughed within several hours of a snowfall. Our road is usually done with in 24 hours (people complain about this) but really it means unless there has been a huge dump you can get out in the car, 4 wheel drive not essential, winter tyres help a lot though.

Looking like the possibility of another inch or so tonight into Monday then it gets colder but a bit more sun.

(Steve I think you're probably thinking of the other Burlington in Vermont? We're about 400 miles from there)

Updated EC Snowtotals from the 'surprise' snowevent of yesterday -

Location                   snowfall amounts (cm)

Windsor                              8
Harrow                              14
Ridgetown                           14 (estimated)
New Glasgow (ne of Chatham)         20
Tillsonburg                          7
Dorchester (E of London)            25
London airport                      22
Kitchener                           18
Delhi                               12
Port Colborne                       10
St. Catharines                      10
Thorold (S of St. Catharines)       17
Toronto Pearson airport             11
Toronto (Downsview)                  9
Toronto (downtown)                   4 (estimated)
Vaughan                             12 (estimated)
Hamilton                             7
Trenton                              8
Kingston                             6
Brockville                          14
Cornwall                            16

I agree with Graeme, EC took it in the neck and admitted it for this one which is refreshing. Also refreshing to actually get a storm that you want, snow is one of these amazing things that makes you want more even though there's more than 2ft lying!

Add 8cm in Dundas to that list and we now have over 60cm....64cm to be precise! LOL! As Paul posts, more later tonight this time should be fairly light before a big freeze during the week but plenty of sunshine if you go out in 6 different layers plus a snood, hat, gloves etc etc.

Also interesting is how the weather always has a way of evening out. St.Catharine's escaped our heavy snowtotals from the storm on Tue/Wed because of some sleet/freezing rain mixing in yet Thorold took a good amount from yesterday's effort.

Great pic Paul. Looking slightly better than our street today but hey it's a Sunday they can be forgiven this once!

Take Care

We'll be getting our snow event too tonight.  As Environment Canada puts it:

City of Calgary
3:25 PM MST Sunday 06 February 2011
Snowfall warning for
City of Calgary continued

10 to 25 centimetres of snow tonight and Monday.

An upslope flow of cold air from an Arctic ridge, moist Pacific air coming over the Rockies from British Columbia and an upper disturbance sliding down the continental divide will all combine to produce heavy snowfall in Western Alberta. The snow is expected to start this evening in the Mountain Parks and spread eastward tonight and on Monday. The Mountain Parks and Southwestern Alberta will see the heaviest snowfall with total amounts ranging from 20 to 35 centimetres by Monday evening. Regions along the foothills including the City of Calgary can see amounts ranging from 10 to 25 centimetres by Monday evening.

This is following the previous week's Chinook event, which was itself preceded by last weeks snow event.  Seems to be a bit of a cycle right now - major snowfall event followed by major melt event  - and indeed later this week it warms right back up again.  Still, first thing is the snow expected overnight and tomorrow.

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: 50
Days with snow falling: 33
Days with snow lying: 89
Maximum snow depth: 9" (23cm)
Current snow depth 2" (5cm) Patchy

Max temps in Dallas between Jan 26 and Feb 6

16, 18, 23, 24, 21, 14, 4, -6, -4, -3, 11, 12.

Amazing contrast

Quite! the Texas blue norther...it's been quite a week for much of the southern US, perhaps most especially Texas and New Mexico.

The Calgary webcams looking nice and snowy this morning, Peter, looks like a decent snowfall, with another few cms still to come.

Meanwhile out east in Atlantic Canada another snowstorm will swing through today into tomorrow. A fairly modest 10-15cm likely for eastern Nova Scotia but this one looks like a bit of a beast for Newfoundland, especially south eastern parts including St Johns. There's a winter storm warning out for 25cm but EC warnings do tend to underestimate for Newfoundland (at least sometimes) in my opinion. Wouldn't be surprised to see St John's catch 35cm from this one.

Back in Southern Ontario it's a chilly week in prospect. After reaching a balmy 0c today highs in Hamilton for the next three days are forecast to be -11c, -11c, -13c.

Following a snowstorm that dumped up to two feet of snow in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, record breaking low temperatures have followed. Reports are in of a reading of -31° F at Nowata, Okla which, if verified, would smash that States all-time record low by some 4 degrees fahrenheit. Quite phenomenal readings for the Southern Plains. More here from Accuweather.

Ironically by the end of the weekend temps in the Southern Plains are likely to be in the 60s fahrenheit! That's some turnaround.

Evening all

No more significant snow but . Temps set to fall to around -20C tonight which is cold, but it's the windchill which is really brutal. I was working in downtown today and walking about 3 blocks from the office to the station was nasty. Almost the coldest I've felt in Canada. Incredibly there are homeless people sleeping on the streets in Toronto in this, I have no idea how they survive

Skiing last night was a bit of an endurance test, it was cold enough to give you an instant headache at speed unless you had your face covered. Snow was good though

Possibility of a small amount more snow tomorrow and Saturday, but then it looks like a big warm up is on the cards. By this time next week we could hit +8C with rain. I'd like a few more weeks of snow before I think about opening up the pool so this is a bit premature IMO, I'll need to complain to the management

thanks to all the guys that keep us up to speed with whats happening across the big pond !! Its fascinating to read your first hand reports . Some of the contrasts in temps over a few days are incredible !!!

Cheers mate, how is Irvine these days? Following on from Paul's post yesterday we got down to -20.2c at the Airport last night and yes i can also confirm, it's been bonechillingly cold at times this week but much quieter on the weather front if your talking about precipation. We've had low's between -16c & -20c most nights and i saw the coldest w/c of this current spell on Wed night at -31!!!

Now, we have the inpending thaw and the real potential for flooding by next week around here. There's still snowbanks 3ft+ high and level snow totals of 62cm so alot of this stuff to go before we see bare ground. Indications are that the rest of February will not be as cold as the past week but there might still be a chance for some more snow with temps around average after this initial 'warm-up' later on in the month. I must congratulate and give respect to Brett for this thaw which he predicted over 3wks ago.

Light snowstreamer off Lake Ontario this afternoon and still very cold for now at -9c. Maybe some light snow as Paul mentioned tomorrow into tomorrow night before the beginnings of the cloudy/mucky/murky stuff. Oh hum!!!

Weekend off this time around so friends over from Sarnia tomorrow night, not barbie weather just yet mind!

Have a great weekend folks.

Weekend greetings.

Well, after weeks of cold weather for a large part of North America, the thaw is on! While that will come as a relief for many, as Stewart points out flooding is a real risk, especially in areas in the Northern Plains, around the Great Lakes and into the NE where snow cover is deep and extensive.

The good news is the rise in temperature will generally not be accompanied by heavy rains. Hopefully any flooding will be local in nature rather than widespread.

The change is probably most noticeable in the southern Plains right now: take Oklahoma City for example where highs were in the mid teens fahrenheit as recently as Wednesday (with lows below 0f/-17c) and deep snow cover. Today it's sun and 56f and tomorrow sun and 66f.

As usual Accuweather like to make some catchy headlines out of it: Warm up to cut US snowcover from 65% to 25% 

The warmer weather will extend right up into the Canadian Prairies over to southern Ontario, with most of the major Canadian cities in these areas seeing a few days of above freezing conditions. One area that will stay cold is Atlantic Canada, especially Newfoundland where it's been very chilly of late. St John's will see highs in the range of -3c to -9c this coming week, well below the average high of around 0c. Plenty more snow on the cards too - making up for the mild early winter experienced on The Rock.

There are also hints in the models that colder air, which will return to the Prairies later next week will then come back into southern Ontario sometime next weekend. Winter is far from over yet!

Have a good weekend..