Historic snow: GTA, Hamilton sees deepest snowpack in decades
Toronto has the second-deepest snowpack on record and the deepest snow since January 1999
After a disappointing winter in 2023/2024, the 2024/2025 winter season in Ontario has proven itself to be anything but disappointing.
Winter made a huge comeback this season thanks to El Niño’s departure and an emerging, albeit late, La Niña.
Three back-to-back storms over the span of eight days impacted Ontario, largely thanks to an abundance of Arctic air surging south over Western Canada, which has been fuelling an intense storm track over Eastern Canada and the United States. In each case, a low-pressure system pulled up mild, humid air from the south, allowing for greater snowfall accumulations due to the increased moisture in the air.
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In just over one week, Toronto received 60 cm of snow, and Hamilton received 55 cm of snow.
While the sudden pileup of snow has been messy and, at times, dangerous, the subsequent increase in the snowpack throughout the cities has become historic.
Toronto sees the deepest snowpack since the “Army Storm” of 1999
The first of the three snowstorms to bring significant snow totals to the GTA was from Feb. 8-9. This storm brought 15.4 cm of snow to the area and was considered at the time to be the biggest snowfall of the season thus far.
The next storm was Feb. 12-13 and brought 26.4 cm of snowfall to the city, quickly replacing the previous storm only days prior as the biggest snowfall of the season.
Finally, rounding out the trio, we had the most recent winter storm sweep through the province over the Family Day long weekend on Feb. 15-16. This storm brought snowfall accumulations of 25 cm to Toronto.
As of Feb. 17, Toronto’s snowpack is at 50 cm depth—the second-deepest snowpack on record and the deepest snowpack the city has had since Jan. 15, 1999, when a major snowstorm struck the city, resulting in the mayor at the time famously calling in the Canadian army to clean up the snow. The 1999 snowstorm resulted in the city having a 67 cm deep snowpack.
Hamilton’s snowpack echoes those of past major snow events
Hamilton was not exempt from the trio of snowstorms over the past week, receiving 10.4 cm, 13.4 cm, and 32 cm of snowfall from these significant events, respectively.
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With a snowpack of 58 cm, as of Feb. 17, Hamilton has also entered its own record books as having the third-deepest snowpack on record.
The city currently has the deepest snowpack since February 2011, when the deep snowpack was largely contributed to by the famous Groundhog Day blizzard.
The record for Hamilton’s deepest snowpack remains to be a whopping 64 cm, which was recorded on Feb. 7, 1978.
Thumbnail image taken by James Stamoulakatos/TWN on Feb. 16, 2025.