Icy winter storm to impact GTA, southern Ontario travel Wednesday
A high-impact winter storm is set to hit southern Ontario on Wednesday. From heavy snowfall to a messy mix of freezing rain and ice pellets, there will be major travel impacts and the potential for power outages, flight cancellations, and local school closures.
A broad Montana low will track across Ontario on Wednesday after impacting the Prairies earlier in the week, spreading some complex and mixed precipitation signals with warmer air in the region.
The system from will bring a swath of messy, wintry weather, including significant snow (10-20+ cm) for some, on Wednesday.
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Meanwhile, prolonged freezing rain is expected south of the snow and rain is likely to the south of the warm front--with a messy, wintry mix in the middle for some areas. Travel will be heavily impacted as road conditions will be slippery and poor.
However, the exact placement of the warm front is still uncertain, the key on where the location of the heaviest snow in southern Ontario will be.
Be sure to keep storm drains clear to prevent localized flooding, as well as prepare for travel and power disruptions throughout Wednesday.
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A wavy warm front slicing into southwestern Ontario will provide the warmer air to bring rainfall across extreme areas of the region.
A swath of messy precipitation, freezing rain and ice pellets, sets up north of the warm front, but the timing and exact placement is still uncertain.
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Currently, forecasts indicate the highest risk for freezing rain will be northwest of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), including Orangeville, Guelph, Fergus, Cambridge, and Brampton.
Forecasters are confident that the transition zone between precipitation types, including freezing rain and ice pellets, will be over the GTA throughout the event. Areas that are impacted by the freezing rain will have an increased risk for power outages, tree damage, and dangerous roads through Wednesday.
Small changes in temperature can have drastic impacts on your precipitation. On the colder side, a swath of heavier snow is more likely north of the GTA, extending from Georgian Bay-Barrie to regions north of Lake Ontario, such as Kingston, where temperatures aloft stay below freezing.
Precipitation will spread across southwestern Ontario through the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday. The morning commute will be tricky with locally heavy rain and a wintry mix near and west of the GTA.
The Wednesday afternoon and evening commute will most likely be slow across southern Ontario, while precipitation begins to ease across the southwest as we progress through the evening.