Storm is now affecting the Maritimes:

http://www.gov.pe.ca/islandcam/

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/StJohnRiverWebcam.asp

Some great pics, we seem to live in hope for something like that this Winter

Afternoon all, well a good storm one in the top 5 in my time here. Forecasts were correct with measurements etc but wrong on timing. In the end the heaviest snow actually arrived after i posted last night between 2100 & 0100. Officially, YHM recorded 23cm but locally some other amounts were posted :

Burlington - 32cm

Oakville - 36cm

Hamilton City - 27cm

Hamilton McMaster - 29cm

QEW/Skyway Bridge - 28cm

Dundas (lower) - 28cm

Dundas (upper) - 31cm

Ancaster - 32cm

We got just over the foot, its all about positioning in these events. The airport sits to the South of the City as you look at it on a map, while Ancaster/Dundas sits to the SW or W and Burlington right on the shoreline NW of Hamilton town. These are the areas that faired better than the airport as the lake enhancement comes thru Hamilton harbour near the Skyway bridge and over into the suburbs NW/W/SW of the city. We sit ontop the famed escarpment when shields occasionally the town below and always gives us more isolation/exposure to the Easterly wind.

Tremendous start to the winter though, no complaint's. Not often you see the QEW still snowcovered at lunchtime today. 18cm as reported earlier for Downtown Toronto very good, the island airport took a battering, snow clearing ops still in progress scheduled to conclude sweep one in both Toronto and Hamilton by 6pm.

Next week a gradual warm up of sorts behind an Alberta Clipper bringng 1-2" on Tuesday. Perhaps a big if brief thaw come Friday. Pre-xmas weekend and into xmas week the cold returns and so does the potential for another storm.

Take Care

The weather network posted this pic from a house in Quebec this morning- now that's a snowdrift!

Stunning picture and I hope similar if 1ft of snow storm come back again in January.  It a massive different from looking outside at black gloomy, dirty wet weather here to bright white clean snow cover as the picture show.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/MT8_Toronto_Kanada_ens.png

Not yet showing 7th Jan date line when I arrive there but prior to that it looking very good and staying well below average on some days.

Another snowstorm hitting the Maritimes on the back of the weekend one. http://www.gov.pe.ca/islandcam/

They upgraded the coldness for early Jan and they seem confident to keep it between -10C to -15C all the way from mid-range? 

Seems cold for some period of time

Possible ice storm in the making for southern Ontario this weekend. This would be one occasion you'd want the milder air to win out in the densely populated Golden Horseshoe. http://weather.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?on61

Considerable uncertainty exists regarding which locations will be most severely impacted, but it appears that areas along the highway 401 corridor have the greatest likelihood for significant freezing rain amounts. There is a risk for widespread power outages due to fallen tree limbs and power lines. For areas farther north, there is also the possibility for significant snowfall and ice pellets from Lake Huron eastward to the Quebec border.

There is still uncertainty surrounding the exact position of the storm track. Any change in the storm track's position will affect precipitation amounts and type. However, it is very likely that holiday travel will be significantly impacted. We recommend watching future forecasts and taking the necessary precautions. Environment Canada will continue to monitor this developing situation and will issue warnings as necessary.

Hi folks, yes as Graeme posted yesterday a new storm in on Southern Ontario and this one could well be more significant than the foot of snow we had last Saturday. 

Situation is that during the week the temps have climbed and this has allowed the upper atmosphere to also climb. Enter a low pressure system that has become stationary across the GTA since we had light snow on Tuesday night. Now, it was rain here this morning but this is likely to turn to freezing drizzle and more significantly freezing rain by dinner time tomorrow.

We are probably not talking the infamous ice storm situation, but it will be enough if the forecast is correct to cause major headaches on the roads and power grid (very fragile at the best of times in Ontario!).

I will post tomorrow with an upadte, a concerning situation so close to xmas. On that note, once the system clears late sunday we go into the freezer again with temps well into the minus c range and a dry, clear maybe even sunny Christmas day on the cards. Whether we have snow on the ground come xmas day is another uncertainty. The past 48hrs or so have seen a thaw, everything's slushy but there's still a good snowcover away from paved areas of 10-15cm. In T.O. it's all gone bar the snowbanks created by the city ploughs last weekend!

Hope you get your cold Jiries and maybe some snow when you come across, i will just be back in Ontario at that point, flying into Scotland from 27 Dec to 10 Jan!

Have a great weekend folks

Hi guys from snowy Calgary. Currently sitting at a 'moderate' -14c, but it's been up and down.  In the deep freeze, then Chinook time, followed by another big dump on Wednesday.

What's life like in the deep freeze?  Be careful out there on the roads, 'cos nothing is going to melt the snow.  Salt / chemical mix is good down to -15, but after that becomes ineffective.  After a while, the micro-melting of the snow at junctions due to car exhausts builds up to a layer of ice the makes moving very difficult, even with snow tires.  I would not want to be about with All Seasons!

Winter certainly seems to be about in all of Canada, even Vancouver has joined the action:  http://www.katkam.ca/.

Here we have had 70cm over the last while, almost triple our normal snow - http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Calgary+roads+boss+admits+city+fail+snow+removal/9302845/story.html.  Almost a foot lying at the moment, and even though the Chinnok hits us by Christmas, it's a pretty good bet that this year is going to be a white one.  Happy Christmas!

Peter

July 2013 - June 2014 Stats
Elevation: 1084m
Latitude: 51° 6' N
Warmest Temperature: 32.8c 02/07/12
Coldest Temperature: -30.1c 07/12/13
Days with thunderstorms: 7
Days with rain falling: 35
Days with snow falling: 20
Days with snow lying: 54
Maximum snow depth: 11" (27cm)
Current snow depth 11" (27cm)

X

That's a lot of days with snow lying so early in the season, Peter. Could take me another ten years to amass that many.

Unfortunately there's been no northward shift in the ice storm forecast and it now looks grim for heavily populated parts of southern Ontario.

The next disturbance is over Texas this morning and will track towards the Lower Great Lakes tonight. The moisture associated with this low is substantial and will likely produce a major freezing rain storm over portions of Southern and Eastern Ontario. Freezing rain may be heavy at times tonight, with 20 to 30 mm of freezing rain possible. Freezing rain will redevelop this afternoon and continue tonight and into Sunday morning. For regions from Sarnia to Burlington and south to Lake Erie, rain begin later this morning and change to freezing rain this evening.

As a result, ice accumulation on trees and power lines could potentially create widespread power outages and downed trees. Driving conditions on untreated roads could become very hazardous. Motorists and pedestrians should exercise caution and adjust travel plans accordingly.

http://weather.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?on61#on61-510cwto-043100

There could still be a last minute change in the storm path but otherwise it may be the worst ice storm (in terms of widespread impact) to affect Canada since the infamous 1998 storm. 

http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Ice_Storm_of_1998 Let's hope it comes nowhere near that event.

Good evening folks,

Well i guess for the Lakeshore/Golden Horseshoe and GTA this is as serious as it can get in terms of winter weather. Ice! over an inch already accumulated from north of here in Guelph to Toronto and parts in between, as of the last hour Pearson Airport had recorded 23hrs of continuous Freezing rain. Ontario is coping at the minute, but only just.

Here in Dundas we've been spared until the last few hours as temps stayed above 0c at ground level. Since 5pm local, this situation has changed and we now have a thin coating of ice. As one TWN presenter put it earlier, it's a slow burner not like a snowstorm where you can immediately see the danger, this time it takes time but by word will it cause problems going forward.

Power is out in Kingston, Aurora Ontario and sporadic elsewhere, we still have it for now but i'm not optimistic. Locals and neighbours tell me this hasn't happened around here since 2003, chances are very high of power outages. Roads are a mess, already tonight someone has been killed in a wx related accident on hwy 27, seriously bad situation developing, just gotta hope as the night goes on that more warmer mixing goes on and we escape the potential worst of this...i'd take snow anyday!

Further south into the U.S. the story is of incredible warmth in the East as reported above. NYC could hit 70f/21c tomorrow, D.C. 74f/23c and Raleigh, NC 78f/26c - incredible for December. This heat is triggering severe thunderstorm warnings and Tornado warnings from LA to TN. On the other side, big Ice accumulations for parts of OK, including the OKC area. 

Incredible weather in the run up to xmas and even more demonstrated by the fact that we go from +5c later tomorrow to -11c on Tuesday and NYC goes from 70f to 35f in 48hrs......nuts!

Will report in the morning if the powers good, wish us luck!

I've witnessed an ice storm with a 1" coating in London. Absolutely brutal - far worse than any snow storm or 'lake effect' dumping.

Morning folks, i'm writing this on the laptop with battery so just a quick update.

Utterly terrible conditions outside, never seen anything like it tbh. Power went out in Upper Dundas at 0330, the lower town around 5am, most of Hamilton except a small pocket in the Westside has lost power at least temporaliy at some point overnight. Hydro One says 67,000 customers are currently without power, Toronto Hydro says 250,000 customers are without power in 90 seperate locations throughout the city boundaries.

Nearly 10% of all air traffic in to YYZ canx or suspended, all TTC streetcar service suspended, all GO transit Lakeshore East services suspended all due to Ice.

Quick pic or two :

That's just along the road from our home

And that's our neighbours tree showing signs of failing! Will try and post later - power permitting. What a shocking Sunday morning though

Hamilton Ontario, Sunday 22 December 0900 - the day of the IceMan!

Excellent pics

Enjoy Prague Graeme, i wish i was out of this icy mess and had gone back to Scotland out the way a week earlier. Any wind and rain would be better than this wind and rain has been!

We are running off the generator at this hour, still 13000 customers in the City of Hamilton area without power including Ancaster, Dundas and Flambrough. As if luck would have it, we were actually it appears the hardest affected section of the city, certainly Mountain (escarpment) communities took the brunt. We have friends in downtown Hamilton and it's almost 'normal' down there but thats what you get for living abit more rural i guess.

Still this afternoon all TTC streetcar service is suspended. Too much thick Ice on the power wires to the connecting pantograph for the cars to operate. Delays of 40-60 mins on GO buses and minor delays on the trains, some stations on the lakeshore line have no power! Delays to flights especially at YYZ but also at YHM, Westjet warning it could be seeing delays for a few days due to this storm. Mayor Ford up in Toronto has also spoken in the last 30mins or so and said that there have been many weather related injuries but no life threatening ones or deaths so far, which is good news. Power in T.O. could be out to some until xmas day, earlier Hydro One and Toronto Hydro declared this an extreme emergency situation not seen since the infamous Ice storm in 1998.

Good job it's Dec 23 tomorrow and for most school and work has wound down, i might brave the office then again with temps expected to plunge later tonight and snow flurries forecast for tomorrow, maybe not. It does look beautiful in its own way but by jings is it a pain!

Here's some more pics :

I'm away to try and clear the driveway before it refreezes tonight, if i can. Will post tomorrow with an update.