First widespread light snow this weekend in Ont. Timing here
Meteorologist
Friday, December 8, 2017, 6:46 AM - After Friday's lake-effect snow event, we’re looking at what will be a more widespread light snowfall across parts of southern Ontario this weekend.
Snow squall warnings were in place for areas south and east of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, with 10-20 cm of snow possible under the heaviest squalls through Friday night. Localized amounts over 30 cm are possible, particularly for areas east of Georgian Bay who have seen persistent squalls since Tuesday night. Below we’ll break down how the rest of the week will pan out.
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A light round of snow Saturday
A weak clipper will push in across the province which will allow a more widespread snow to affect the region as opposed to the narrow and focused snow squalls that have been occurring. While snowfall amounts aren’t going to be significant by any means, the snow may bring some travel delays on the roads across the GTA and portions of southwestern Ontario.
These systems are particularly challenging to forecast due to the subtle features associated with them. While overall these weak clippers aren’t known for impressive snowfall amounts, subtle features and lake enhancement can lead to isolated areas of overachieving snowfall. I’ll break down what we’re looking at below.
Timing
The system will start to push into southwestern and central Ontario through Saturday morning and then through the GTA and Golden Horseshoe in the late afternoon and evening.
Periods of light snow will slowly move east in the overnight period, but remains scattered as the system weakens and essentially falls apart. Otherwise, a chilly weekend with meandering lake-effect snow bands redeveloping for Sunday.
How much snow should you expect, and where?
For now, generally a dusting to possibly 2 cm are expected from this system across the GTA and the Golden Horseshoe. For the Niagara and northern shores of Lake Erie, 2-4 cm of accumulation.
As you go west of the GTA toward the shores of Lake Huron, accumulations are likely to be a little higher near 4-8 cm. Within areas of lake enhancement, accumulations will be at the higher end of the accumulation ranges possibly even see a few centimeters more.
A few more areas to watch for isolated heavier snowfall are the shores of Georgian Bay, east of the GTA toward the Oshawa region and along the Lake Erie shores through the Simcoe and Delhi regions. These are regions where over-achievement is possible.
Again, these snowfall amounts are certainly not significant by any means, but given the time of year where people are getting holiday preparations done, the light snow may have some impacts on travel across the GTA. Just something to keep in mind if you have travel plans through the day Saturday.
Northwest winds will setup across Lake Huron and Georgian Bay as the low pushes east which will bring the risk for a few lake effect bands across the snow belt regions through southwestern Ontario.
