People in the eastern half of Canada are digging out after another monster storm dumped huge amounts of snow for the second time in recent days, with parts of Quebec walloped the hardest.
Montreal and Laval reported about 40 centimetres of snow had dropped as of 1 a.m. ET Monday, with 35 centimetres accumulating in the Eastern Townships.
In Montreal, snow is expected to continue into Monday. Environment Canada has issued a blizzard warning for much of southern and central Quebec along the St. Lawrence as well as the Gaspé Peninsula.
Montreal’s city spokesperson, Philippe Sabourin, said Monday that over the past five days, the city has seen about 40 per cent of the snow it usually gets in an average winter, totalling at least 70 centimetres — and it will be “quite a challenge” to clear all of it.
Sabourin said crews have at least eight days of snow loading, or removal, ahead of them as plows work on 1,000 kilometres of streets. He said most streets have already been cleared, but about 50 per cent of the sidewalks still need work.
Quebec was hit with heavy loads of snow in the past week. CBC News reporter Rowan Kennedy provides the latest on the winter storm.
Many daycares, along with English- and French-language primary and high schools, in the Greater Montreal area are closed on Monday due to snow.
Police have been urging motorists to avoid non-essential travel. Sabourin advised people to work from home if they can on Monday because the province does not observe a public holiday like some other provinces.
Ontario is marking Family Day, so schools and many businesses are scheduled to remain closed and lighter traffic is expected.
Environment Canada had issued its winter storm warning for across southern Ontario and Quebec on Saturday.
The back-to-back major snow dumps in Quebec have made life difficult for commuters. But for avid skiers and winter sports enthusiasts, the heavy snowfall was great news.
By Sunday, the storm was bearing down on the two provinces for the second wintry strike since Thursday, when between 20 and 40 centimetres of snow or more fell, depending on the region.
“The situation has tempered down in southern Ontario, so at least there is some relief for those regions,” said Jean-Philippe Begin, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“But about 25 centimetres or 25 to 30 centimetres fell in the Greater Toronto Area.”
Similar conditions were felt in southeastern Ontario, with more than 30 centimetres of snow blanketing the Ottawa area. To the west of Toronto, Hamilton received 32 centimetres of snow, Environment Canada said.
Although Environment Canada lifted its storm warning for the Greater Toronto Area on Sunday night, the weather service said a snow squall warning remains in effect for communities along the Bruce Peninsula to the west and in the Georgian Bay area to the north, as 30 to 60 centimetres were expected to fall from Monday morning into Tuesday.
Toronto snow plow driver Zach McLeod said clearing downtown streets will be challenging.
After a midweek storm brought 40 centimetres of snow, the city got hit with another 26 centimetres, and it’s all got to go somewhere.
Slow process to move piles of snow
“The snow is so much that downtown there really aren’t a lot of places to put the snow,” McLeod said.
Vincent Sferrazza, Toronto’s director of operations and maintenance for transportation services, said the priority is to clear the roads, and then workers will come back to remove the massive piles, put them in dump trucks and transport them to various storage sites across the city.
City of Toronto officials said on Monday it’ll be weeks before crews are able to fully remove all the snow after back-to-back snowstorms blanketed much of the region. They’re also warning drivers not to park in certain areas or risk getting ticketed.
Sferrazza said city officials expect snow removal will take three weeks to complete.
“The last time that we needed to do snow removal of this magnitude was in January 2022, when we received approximately 50 to 55 centimetres,” he said in a media briefing on Monday.
For motorists, conditions rapidly deteriorated in the two provinces on Sunday. In Quebec, provincial police reported a major collision on Highway 20 near Drummondville, about 90 kilometres northeast of Montreal. Twenty vehicles were involved including transport trucks, but no injuries were reported.
Flights were cancelled or delayed at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, with officials warning travellers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
Ontario Provincial Police reported about 200 collisions over a 24-hour period and 150 vehicles were stuck in the snow.
Extreme cold in the Prairies
In Western Canada, extreme cold warnings remained in effect on Monday in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Windchill values around –40 C to –45 C are expected to continue into midweek.
The weather service said that by mid-morning Monday, Key Lake in north-central Saskatchewan was the country’s “cold spot” at a chilly –48.5 C.
Environment Canada said temperatures will begin to rise by Thursday in those three provinces. They’ll still be in double-digit negative territory in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but increase to only a few degrees below zero by Friday. Temperatures will be on the plus side in southern Alberta starting Thursday.
Freezing rain in Maritimes
Across the Maritimes on Sunday, it was snow, high winds and freezing rain. Central and northern New Brunswick was expected to get more than 35 centimetres of snow, and a freezing rain warning was in effect in Nova Scotia.
Two fire trucks slid off the road en route to a call on Sunday and one of them ended up on its side in Queens County, southwest of Halifax.
Slippery conditions in the Halifax were continuing on Monday for the province’s public holiday, Heritage Day.
Environment Canada issued a wind warning for Prince Edward Island for Monday. Winds are expected to be around 90 km/h at their peak, causing blowing snow and knocking down visibility.
