My cousin who stays in Uxbridge which is to the North East of Toronto I think says it is very snowy there and the most they have had this winter. I visited last summer for my 10th visit to Canada and it was the first poor summer weather I have experienced there but still had a great time.......was not cold just wet a lot. My uncle has a house at lake muskoka and I always planned to take the family over one winter for a change and go snowmobiling on the lake and to see some real snow.....however after this winter I no longer need to...I just need to invest in a snowmobile for here....In all seriousness I do intend to have a winter holiday in the next few years there so it is with great interest i read all these reports.

great reading guys

Incredible lake-effect storm for South Bend, Indiana: two day total of 36" of snow under a 'perfect' set up. A couple of articles from Accuweather and the local newspaper.

incredible themal gradients across the rockies coming up. uppers from -28c to 0c within a couple hundred miles !!!!

http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/gfse_cartes.php?ech=6&code=0&mode=1&carte=1

no wonder the jet is excited!!

Well, as expected, it's going to be an incredibly eventful week in the US in particular: widespread snows, deep cold, a nasty ice storm, some severe thunderstorms...pretty much everything on offer!

Perhaps the nastiest conditions are in parts of the south, facing an ice storm: at the moment northern and central Georgia and parts of South Carolina look to be hit hardest: power cuts, closed interstates, school closures - the Governer in Georgia has declared a state of emergency http://www.wsbtv.com/weather/26398414/detail.html

This storm is going to hit the coast, converge with another swinging east from the Plains and blow up into another major snowstorm for parts of the NE, including, again, New York City. Both Boston and NYC will probably see up to a foot of wind-driven snow, later tomorrow into Wednesday. There will be widespread snow further west too from the feature heading in off the Plains - snow from the Midwest through the Ohio Valley into the NE, mainly in the 3-6" range. Toronto should at least see some snow although once again it's the coast where the storm explodes - storm track this winter just hasn't been favourable for eastern Great Lakes snowstorms (lake effect aside).

Snow too for the west coast, including Vancouver, as Brett Anderson reports here.

Lots to watch as the week unfolds!

Hello folks, as Graeme just reported some incredible weather for many parts of N America this week. Parts of the deep south will and are seeing snowfall in locations more accustomed to 70f and major ice storms will occur where the boundary lies between the very cold air to the North and the slightly less cold further South. The East Coast, particulary Boston and New England but not exclusively will see big snow totals again and parts of the Ohio Valley into Western NY state seeing an all out blizzard for a good while Tue into Wed.

Then there's Canada!!! Vancouver forecasted to get 15cm at least from a storm system moving into the area. Particular focus on Vancouver Island for higher snowtotals. A major storm system, the same one that will 'bomb' in the U.S. NorthEast pounded Strathmore, AB over the weekend closing the trans-canada highway between Medicine Hat & Calgary trapping hundreds of motorists in conditions that state police called 'life-threatening'. Temperatures also miles below 0c.

And, then Southern Ontario Bitterly cold this morning at -15c @ 8am with -24 the windchill. Not surprisingly the City of Hamilton issued a cold weather alert last night and this remains in place concurrently. Temp has creeped up to -4c this afternoon. 11cm of snow lying out our front yard and 6cm in Downtown Hamilton, still 17cm at Toronto Pearson ahead of us getting into some East Coast Storm action tomorrow. Our snow will be the stuff that tracks north from the Ohio Valley and should give most of the GTA 5-10cm which will make for a tricky drive home tomorrow. Now, the real interest for me and anyone who watches the weather around these parts is that will the storm spinning, the wind will swing into the East to blow on-shore from Lake Ontario. In these scenario's in the past we have seen monster snowtotals (+70cm a few winters back!). That came from a storm that tracked right through the Great Lakes and this one won't do that so snow amounts even with lake enhancement will never reach that level. However, with a bit of luck - City of Hamilton/Burlington/Oakville could see 20-25cm of snow in total from tomorrow/ tomorrow nights event. EC however haven't issued a warning yet so caution is advised!

Remaining very cold once the storm passes with flurries and more snow possibly for Saturday. So, no direct hit so far this winter but this spell of snow far supercedes the cold but snowless winter of 2009/10.

Will post update tomorrow if i get the chance, take care.

Good luck Stewart - fingers crossed for you. Latest EC goes for 2-4cm today and 10cm tonight for Hamilton - not quite warning criteria (15cm in 12 hours) but that could easily be revised upwards if the lake enhancement really kicks in...

You know it's serious Stateside when Henry Margusity dusts off the 'Big Daddy' hat - see here. Most likely southern New England will be the bullseye with 18"+ in the worst hit parts from the intense coastal storm. Will check in tomorrow to see how it's all panning out.

LOL. I just received an email from someone who works for my company in Boston. She says she reckons she won't make it in to the office tomorrow due to 17 inches of accumulation being forecast

Some mega snow totals forecast for highly populated areas of the U.S. East Coast, last i checked NYC was now in the 6-12" zone. Boston and interior New England will have disruptive and at times dangerous snowfall from this event, wouldn't like to be booked on a flight in or out of Logan Airport tomorrow!

Anyhow, here we now have a EC advisory which gives me increasing confidence for an event in the Golden Horseshoe overnight tonight and maybe a snowday for some tomorrow :

Special weather statement
Issued by Environment Canada Ontario region.  2:01 PM EST Tuesday
11 January 2011.

Special weather statement issued for..
Niagara
City of Hamilton
Halton - Peel.

..Snowfall today and tonight..

A low pressure system over Ohio this afternoon is tracking eastward
to lie over Pennsylvania this evening.  The snow associated with this
system will begun in the London area and will spread eastward
reaching the City of Toronto late this afternoon.  General amounts of
5 to 10 cm are expected.

Along the western shore of Lake Ontario from Oakville to St
Catharines embedded lake effect snow bands will result in higher
snowfall totals and visibilities possibly reduced to near zero at
times.  Snow is expected to begin in these regions this afternoon in
advance of the main system and continue through to Wednesday morning.
Snowfall amounts are forecast to be near 15 cm..Although snowfall
warning criteria of 15 cm in 12 hours is currently not expected to be
met.

Listen for further statements.  Additional information may also be
found by consulting the latest public forecast.

TWN have 5-10cm for Hamilton, from past experience this may be alittle low however they are ramping up their storm coverage of this event. I have laughed this afternoon though at their idea that 5cm in Toronto tonight is a national news storyeither desperate or P.R. driven? Vancouver (in the outer West to folk in Oakville!) may well see higher totals than around here tonight from their storm, perhaps 20cm which i think is a pretty big story for that location.

Report tomorrow and update on what happened, if i can dig myself out......lol!

Just saw on google this with regards to snow

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/nyregion/12snow.html?src=me

I thought Joe ******i said there will be less snow for the east coast [NE States] with no repeat of last winters "snowmaggedon" - Now there has been several heavy snowfalls already. Isn't it interesting that in NYC you never have a dustings of snow opr flurries you have "21 inches of snow" then it warms up to 52'F with unseasonable temperatures i.e New Years Eve and Day 2011. Then it cools and they are now expecting another "17" of snow and I bet it will warm up for a week then next week 30" of snow perhaps.

Will be interesting to see how JFK airport copes with the snowfall and I bet you anything the airports would be closed already so no passenger or communter would go there getting stranded unlike here.

Whilst they are getting all the snow we are getting such warm weather over here and even in Poland it reached +6c today. Is this noticable change in weather La Nina thing transferring over to an El Nino or the change in our jet stream!? Meanwhile more floods in Australia. I mean this year there has only been one sunny day without rain! Something is going on. There weather over all of North America is very cold and it could have an impact on our weather next week!?

Also further to my above isn't it interesting how exactly the same area's are effected like last months Boxing days snowfall!? - Take a look at this from AccuWeather:

http://vortex.accuweather.com/adc2004/pub/includes/columns/newsstory/2011/400x266_01111908_nesnowmaptuespm.jpg

Storm is in full effect in Boston this morning: http://www.bu.edu/alumni/connected/webcams/

Blizzard warning for Boston.

that is lovely !!

and what a nice plastering you had there !!

Very quick morning report 

First proper storm for a while. Started around 7pm here and was still going at midnight when I went to bed. Quite windy with blowing snow, making for fun driving conditions. Very glad we've got winter tyres, they make a huge difference.

About 10cm of fresh powdery snow here, so nothing epic but still , and gives us about 15cm lying, possibly more. Snow shovel is back in action. The kids are gutted because it's not a snow day 

Currently very light snow, and cold - we are looking at a high of -7 today.

Finally we got a decent snowstorm! Might not have been record-breaking or even majorly deep but enough snow fell to say that it was an 'event' around here and the first snowevent we've seen (ploughable) for quite sometime, maybe even back to December 2008. Here are some snowtotals from Environment Canada for the GTA & Southern Ont. upto 8am this morning unless stated :

Location                   snowfall amounts (cm)

Windsor                           11
Tillsonburg                       7
London                            5
Waterloo-Wellington               7
Hamilton                                   13
St. Catharines                    24 (as of 1PM today)
Grimsby mountain                  15
Toronto Downsview                 9.6
Toronto Buttonville               7
Toronto East York                 8.2
Brampton                          12
Tapley (sw of Peterborough)       9.6
Trenton                           7 (as of 1PM today)

City of Hamilton, Burlington, Halton & Peel and Niagara Pennisula took the brunt of the snow last evening and overnight. Here in Dundas, 17cm fell outside and we now have a fairly impressive 24cm of lying snow from the weekend and now. Absolutely beautiful to look at and it doesn't matter how often snow falls (as you know this winter Graeme over there) it is still a wonderful sight as it glides to the ground or in our case last night, drives itself into the garage as the wind picked up to 30kph. Conditions between 10pm and 3am this morning from what i hear were pretty severe, bitterly cold -8c and windchill touching -20 in exposed locales. Proper Canadian weather!

I decided this morning that today would be a work from home day and i think it was a wise choice with the usual amount of minor shunts of area highways including the QEW and Hwy6. Conditions on the main roads in Hamilton were better than expected and once again like last Friday/Saturday, Hamilton road crews seem to have done an excellent ploughing/salting job which i'm hearing Paul, wasn't quite as good in Burlington and causing political fall-out this afternoon as a result! Schools however remained open  which is a shame, lol!

In the states, the weather was particulary bad around Boston as predicted and interior New England got walloped. Haven't seen accumulation totals yet for New York but JFK did have over 300 canx flights. The storm system (Nor'Easter now) is moving up the seaboard into Atlantic Canada as shown below -

This is the Low Pressure system responsible for 2ft of Snow in and around Boston and heavy falls in the interior North-East of the U.S. & Atlantic Canada

Here's one or two bits i've picked up from media coverage around the Hamilton area today courtesy of the spec.com -

88yr old man shovels 15cm of fresh snow off his drive in Burlington, Ontario this morning and the spec reports on the snowfall here - http://www.thespec.com/news/crime/article/472822--hamilton-halton-bear-brunt-of-snow.

More snow pics from the Greater Hamilton Area here - http://www.thespec.com/photozone/472943.

Currently -7c in flurries and staying frigid through the weekend with further chances of accumulating snow on Saturday and indications of another storm early next week. This might well be our winter, so time to enjoy and it does make a change from the cold and sunny days we experienced last winter.

Snowy regards

Good to hear there was a decent snowfall for you Stewart & Paul. I miss Ontario, especially on days like this when it's dreich and damp here (not that I'm complaining - amazing winter here in Scotland!)

Summary of the east coast storm here. Looks like Savoy, Mass took the snowiest locale title this time around with an incredible 38"!

The cold stays for the eastern half of the US/Canada right into next week. In fact a bitterly cold airmass looks like moving into central Canada, and should at least take a swipe at southern Ontario. Plenty to watch for, with more storms in the offing too!

Just stealing a quick second to report.  January = cold.  Too many snowy -20s days with -30s windchill makes .  Not that much snow, just 6cm so fat, but persisitant flurries.  Looking forward to a potential warmup next 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: 30
Days with snow lying: 66
Maximum snow depth: 7" (17cm)
Current snow depth 5" (13cm)

Yes Peter, looking like a break in the frigid conditions for you from around midweek. Latest forecast suggests up to +10c by Friday, which must be appealing when you've been sub -20c for a while. Conversely looks like the coldest air of the winter so far may be in store for the eastern Great Lakes by around the same time - looking at the latest GFS/ECM. We could be talking -10c to -15c for highs in T.O. and Hamilton.

It's certainly a frigid morning in the Yukon, with quite a few sub -40c readings. Dawson currently returning -46c. Similar conditions in easternmost Alaska.

Webcams looking nice and snowy in Toronto again right now as a little clipper pushes through dropping 5cm or so of new snow. Definitely a cold pattern entrenched over the eastern Great Lakes/NE States for the next week to 10 days. The only fly in the ointment is a storm moving through on Tuesday, with the models unsure what to make of it. Could be an icy mess with snow to rain to snow type event and a brief incursion of warmer air (especially to the south and east of these regions). EC going for a temporary warm-up in Toronto too, but I'm not convinced on that yet. Even if there is, it's not going to last.

Out in Vancouver, well it's like much of the UK today: mild, wet and windy.

Interesting week ahead - have a good weekend everyone!

Morning all

About 2 inches of fresh snow this morning, still snowing lightly, so it looks as if 3-4 inches is likely Starting to look much more like proper winter here . Good timing too - I much prefer shovelling the drive on a Saturday morning to a Monday morning.

Been pretty cold here this week.  I was up skiing in Kitchener/Waterloo on Wednesday night with the kids and it was a bit nippy at the exposed top of the hill, air temp around -11C I think but wind chill making it feel much colder. The locals were all armoured up like Arctic explorers, probably wondering who the nutter was skiing in a cheap jacket and a pom pom hat

Good summary of the possible week ahead Graeme. Tuesday is indeed the interesting day - Accuweather has an additional 1-3 inches here but with a high of +4C and a possibility of some mixing before the temp shoots down to -11C overnight so that could be an interesting day. Then later in the week we have some real cold. Friday max at -9 and a real feel of -27C overnight in the forecast

Indeed Paul, a wintry week ahead for you, something reflected in the latest Special Weather Statement, here. Going to be cold tonight in southern Ontario as temps fall away through the day: -17c for Toronto, -23c Ottawa, possibly a -30c around Algonquin? I think later in the week/next weekend might be even colder, depending on just how far SE the very cold air over central Canada gets pushed towards the eastern Great Lakes. Sub -20c for T.O.? Possibly...

Before that there's a storm brewing for Tuesday and looks like being a wintry mix with a period of freezing rain on the cards for areas of southern Ontario. Too early for detail and if the storm nudges further south it could be a snowmaker (~15cm) for the Golden Horseshoe. Interestingly the US forecasts are generally keeping the storm further south - check out Henry M's snowmap.

Nice to see Iqaluit finally getting some 'proper' winter weather after the extreme warmth of the last 8 weeks. Sub -20c this week, as it should be....and further south Hudson Bay has finally just about frozen over!

Hello folks, hope your having a good weekend. I've been working away hard for the past few days so no chance to post until now on the snow yesterday and upcoming winter storm next week. One drawback of having 2wks + off around the turn of the year is that there is a literal mountain of paperwork and stuff to be done on return. The snow of course makes up for this and yesterday we got 8cm further addition accumulation from the Alberta Clipper. Before this time last weekend, it would have been a major story but with now 32cm (yep, just over a foot) level snow outside in Upper Dundas, the Clipper just topped-up the impressive snowtotal.

Certainly as things stand this afternoon, the snowiest spell of weather for 2 winters since '08/'09 and the deepest accumulation of snow for abit also, need to check my records on that one. Snow is not the only news story here, it's absolutely bitter outside!  Current Air temp is -13c, windchill/realfeel -21c and going to get even colder tonight as Paul and Graeme reported. Toronto yesterday afternoon activated it's cold weather plan so that the vulnerable could get access to essential needs when the temp drops below -15c.

I was going to post the current Special Weather Statement, but Graeme you beat me too it! Major storm this week initially on Mon/Tue will be this winter storm that still has the forecasters baffled and as such fine margins between snow/freezing rain or plain rain. This afternoon, EC go for 4c (briefly) as a high on Tuesday with Freezing Rain or rain. That will of course melt some of the snowcover and also cause absolute mayhem should the freezing element of the rain be there as is currently forecasted for upto 8hrs in some areas of the GTA.

I have recent experience of 20mins of Freezing Rain in Ayrshire on Xmas Day and that was bad and of course, more problematic experience of it here 4yrs ago during our stormy winter pattern where several 'mixing' events occurred before we got the big snowstorm on Valentine's Day to eclipse them all at 70cm!!! Would be nice if the storm was further south as it would limit the freezing rain potential and also increase the snow potential. This one has a few more forecast run changes to go through before it's set in stone yet.

I'm off tomorrow to a day conference in T.O. letting the GO Train take the strain! Tuesday may well be another work from home day and the end of the week is also looking interesting as Graeme posted earlier, severe cold conditions could develop for the GTA & GHA by Thurs/Fri with daytime high's nearer -20c and lows in some sheltered spots below -30c. That will hurt!

Will try and post update at some point tomorrow on how the winter storm is looking. Take Care

Well, we didn't have to wait until the end of the week: both Toronto and Hamilton dipped to -20c last night, certainly not a given every winter. Ottawa reached -25c and Algonquin -33c!