Snow squalls that buried parts of Ontario around Georgian Bay at the beginning of the weekend are moving south, with weather warnings and alerts stretching from Collingwood to London and the northern edges of the Greater Toronto Area.
On Saturday, almost a metre of snow blew off the Great Lakes and closed a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway. More than 30,000 homes were also without power after the storm.
Communities on the shores of lakes Superior and Huron felt the brunt of the weather event and remained under a snow squall warning. Areas around Niagara Falls and Kingston were also under lake-effect snow squall watches.
Gravenhurst, in the Muskoka region, was hit with 140 centimetres of snowfall and declared a state of emergency.
Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell said the volume of snow dumped on parts of the province was due to the warm weather from the past weeks finally meeting winter chills.
“It’s been a very mild and calm fall up until now and that has led to record warm water temperatures on all five of the Great Lakes, including Georgian Bay,” he said. “So, record warm water and now finally the arctic air is here and that’s the reason we’re having such intense snow squalls.”
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The snow threat now looks to be moving further south, with Environment Canada issuing snow squall warnings and predicting 15 to 25 centimetres of snow for communities on the edge of Lake Huron and the southern shores of Georgian Bay.
Squalls are also expected as far south as London, Ont., and could drop up to 30 centimetres of snow on the western Ontario city by Tuesday morning.
A weather advisory for between five and 10 cm of snow was issued for Kitchener and Newmarket, as well as parts of Brampton and Guelph.
“An intense snow squall will move south across the area this afternoon and evening,” Environment Canada said.
“Brief but intense snowfall could affect road conditions and result in significantly reduced visibility. While most areas may only see a few centimetres of snow, accumulations in excess of 10 centimetres are possible for locations west of Orangeville to Kitchener.”
Back in Gravenhurst, cleanup efforts continued into Sunday.
OPP said emergency crews helped pull people from their cars on Saturday and bring them to the Gravenhurst Town Hall, which was powered by generators as widespread power outages hit the area.
Hydro One, the provincial utility, reported that the number of customers without power soared to more than 60,000 as of Sunday morning.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a social media post on Sunday that his government would make extra resources available to help the snow-struck town.
“We’re working closely with local authorities in Gravenhurst and across the Muskoka region to make sure they have everything they need to respond to yesterday’s snowstorm,” the premier wrote.
The threat of more snow, according to Farnell, isn’t going away.
“It’s not going to melt, the cold air keeps coming right through next week and that means more snow,” he said.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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