Storm warningin effect Sunday, heavy snow

The heavy snowfall follows Saturday’s dumping — which was expected to be around 10 cm — that caused delays at Toronto Pearson and had municipalities around the GTA declaring significant weather events. 

The winter storm is expected to continue into Sunday evening, with the heaviest snowfall expected to happen in the morning, according to the weather agency. At its peak, parts of the GTA can see snowfall rates of three to six centimetres per hour. 

“Conditions will rapidly deteriorate Sunday morning as a more significant area of snow and blowing snow arrives,” the warning statement reads. “Travel will be hazardous and is not recommended.”

Environment Canada says that the rapidly accumulating snow from the “impactful winter storm” could make travel difficult as visibility could be suddenly reduced to near zero at times of heavy and blowing snow. 

Here are the latest updates on the weekend storm: 

Use “extreme caution” if you plan on venturing out onto Lake Simcoe, York Regional Police warned Sunday afternoon. 

“Zero visibility and deep snow are impacting travelling by foot, snowmobile, ATV/UTVs” on the body of water, police said in a post on X.

All 311 requests have been put on hold until further notice according to the City of Toronto.

The non-emergency phone number allows residents to submit and track service requests for their neighbourhood amongst other things.

Instead of calling for help with snow clearing, people can check PlowTO for more information on when snow plows are expected to clear their street.

Toronto has received approximately 21 cm of snow so far since the storm began, according to Brad Rousseau, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

“This storm is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of what we would expect this time of year. That said, the amount of snow you see for the month of February as a whole is actually well above normal,” he said. “Unofficially, we are at a total of 67 cm of snow at Pearson International Airport for the month of February, and the average for February is usually about 28 cm. So we are quite a bit above our normal snowfall for the month.”

Rousseau said he thinks it’s unlikely that any records will be broken by the weekend’s snowfall unless total amounts reach at least 30.5 cm.

“As we round the corner through the mid-winter months, we start to see some of that kind of warmer air from the Gulf of Mexico start creeping northward a bit and we still have the Arctic air, which is very cold. When the air masses collide, you get an active storm track and that active storm track has been deemed right at the Great Lakes Basin, including the Toronto area,” Rousseau explained. “They’ll track up the central U.S. and usually the ones that track just south of the Great Lakes, just south of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario — which is what is happening with this current system — tend to deliver the biggest snowfall for us.”

In the coming days, as soon as Monday, Toronto will see a cooling period as another Arctic air mass moves into the Great Lakes area.

“Not quite as severe as what we’ve seen in the past little few weeks, but still, certainly we’re looking at temperatures anywhere between five to eight degrees below seasonal for this time here … which means the snow is not going to go anywhere anytime soon,” Rousseau said.

There is no subway service between Bloor-Yonge and Lawrence stations on Line 1. The TTC cited “weather conditions impacting service and mechanical issues” as the cause of the problem. Shuttle buses are operating along the stretch in the meantime.

Riders using public transit in the city should also expect delays of up to 45 minutes on the Dundas 505 streetcar because of the weather conditions.

Of the just under 100 flights scheduled to arrive at or depart from Billy Bishop airport, 37 have been cancelled and another 12 have been delayed.

“With the winter storm intensifying, our airlines have made pre-emptive changes to flight schedules to prepare for the challenges that tomorrow’s weather will bring,” the airport wrote in a winter weather advisory on its site. “Please check with your airline for flight status and the latest updates and stay safe.”

All Mirvish performances scheduled to take place on Sunday will continue as planned. 

This includes Come From Away at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, The Lion King at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Just For One Day at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre and the final performance of Fifteen Dogs at the CAA Theatre.

All Toronto Public Library branch locations will be closed on Sunday due to the heavy snowfall. They will also be closed on Monday for Family Day.

Warming centre provide resting spaces, meals, washrooms and referrals to emergency shelter on a 24-hour basis. Once a warming centre reaches capacity, the City will provide transportation to another warming centre where space is available.

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and Art Gallery of Ontario will be closed on Sunday because of the weather.

The ROM is planning on reopening on Monday with all the previously scheduled Family Day activities.

The Toronto Zoo also closed again because of the winter weather. The zoo was proactively closed on Thursday to protect the safety and well-being of the animals, staff, volunteers and visitors.

“We look forward to reopening on Family Day (Monday) as we take the necessary steps to ensure a safe Zoo for all,” the zoo said in a post on X on Saturday.

Toronto Pearson International Airport is facing hundreds of delayed or cancelled flights amidst the winter storm.

FlightAware is reporting 162 delayed flights and 226 cancellations at the airport. 

Airlines such as Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat, Porter Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have modified flights between Toronto and cities all over the world.

Travellers are warned to check the status of their flight before leaving for the airport. They can monitor departures and arrivals through Pearson’s website or check the airport’s social media posts.

Since the weather event began Saturday evening, over 12 centimetres of snow has fallen at the airport with another 15 expected throughout Sunday. Pearson has seen over 60 centimetres of snow in the past week as of 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.

With the recent string of snow storms hitting Toronto and the GTA this month, you may be wondering when the next plow or salter will pass by. Conveniently, the city of Toronto has a tool that helps residents check if a truck is en route to your area.

PlowTO is the city’s real-time plow and salter tracking tool that uses GPS technology to show users where salters and road, sidewalk and cycling plows are around the city.

The map is available on the city’s website and is colour coded to depict when the roads or sidewalks were last plowed or salted.

The TTC has shut down a portion of subway service on Line 2 Bloor-Danforth and halted service along some bus routes because of the winter weather.

Subway trains are not running between Woodbine and Kennedy stations on the east side of the city. Instead, shuttle buses have been sent and will operate along the stretch.

All express bus routes will also be running as local service except for the 900 Airport Express and the 927 Highway 27 Express buses, which will be operating as normal.

The 87 Cosburn buses are not stopping Near East York Acres parking lot at Haldon Avenue because the road hasn’t been plowed, the TTC said in a post on X.

Buses travelling along the 64 Main route are detouring southbound using Kingston Road, Woodbine Avenue and Gerrard Street East.

There is no bus service between the Woodbine Racetrack Loop’s main entrance and Humberwood Boulevard Loop at View Green Crescent because of the weather.

The 28 Bayview South bus is not servicing stops between Evergreen Brick Works and Davisville Station.

The City is keeping warming centres open for today and will be accepting walk-ins.

Warming centre provide resting spaces, meals, washrooms and referrals to emergency shelter on a 24-hour basis. Once a warming centre reaches capacity, the City will provide transportation to another warming centre where space is available.

GO Train service on Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West routes will be running on a Saturday schedule today and tomorrow due to the winter storm. 

GO Transit advises riders to check the schedules in advance for modified trip times to plan ahead, according to a statement on GO Transit’s website.

“We’ll do our best to ensure that you get to your destination as close to your schedule as possible, however we recommend allowing yourself extra travel time,” said the statement.

The University of Toronto has decided to close for the day and cancel all on campus activities due to “heavy snowfall and more expected throughout the day,” according to a statement by the school Sunday morning.

“University buildings are closed, and students and employees should not come to campus,” the school said in the statement.

The university will also be closed on Monday for Family Day and says they plan to reopen on Tuesday for “regularly scheduled activities during Reading Week.” 

The other two U of T campuses remain open at this time. 

During the day on Sunday, the high is expected to reach 4 C with a wind chill near -14. Winds are anticipated to gust northeast at around 30 km/h up to 60 km/h.

Into the evening, periods of snow are expected to taper off with mainly cloudy conditions and a 60 per cent chance of flurries. Local blowing snow can be expected and total accumulations of around two centimetres. The temperature is expected to reach a low of -11 C with a -14 wind chill that will become -22 overnight.