Wintry weekend ahead: Special weather statements issued in southern Ontario
Thursday, December 12, 2013, 2:15 PM -
GET THE LATEST UPDATES: Tune into The Weather Network on TV for complete coverage on this system.
Widespread snow squall watches and warnings continue to cover much of Ontario, with strong winds over the open waters of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay creating ideal continues for relentless squalls.
So far, upwards of 30 cm of snow have been recorded in parts of Cottage Country -- and there's more on the way.
Environment Canada is calling for total local snowfall amounts of at least 60 cm by Friday morning. Low-to-nil visibility resulting from snow and blowing snow are expected to cause dangerous driving conditions into the weekend.
On Thursday afternoon, Environment Canada issued a series of special weather statements for a swath of southern Ontario, including the City of Toronto, Sarnia, London, Halton, Peel, Waterloo, Belleville and Kingston.
Important to watch w/ this system is higher snowfall amounts in Golden Horseshoe due to enhancement off of Lake Ontario #onstorm
— Dayna Vettese (@daynavettese) December 12, 2013
A system that originated in the southern Plains states is expected to move into southwestern Ontario Friday evening and migrate through the province on Saturday.
Weather Network meteorologists have been monitoring this disturbance for some time.
RELATED: What will the rest of the month look like, weather-wise? Read meteorologist Brad Rousseau's predictions.
"We have been obsessively checking the newest forecast models and they continue to paint a snowy picture for eastern Canada this weekend from Friday to Sunday and the situation continues to evolve," Weather Network meteorologist Dayna Vettese writes.
"Though the finer details of the forecast are likely to change, such as are people going to see 5 cm or 10 cm, there is a fair amount of agreement with forecast model guidance that accumulating snow is on the way."
Lakeside communities may see locally higher amounts.
"Parts of Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington and possibly Hamilton could see up to 15 cm of snow accumulate in some places, provided we see lake enhancement," explains Monica Vaswani, another meteorologist at The Weather Network.
Visit the Alerts section of the website to keep on top of watches and warnings across the country.
