This holiday season in Canada, there’s a veritable buffet of weather warnings on the menu.
Pick your poison: extreme cold, Arctic outflow, winter storm, snowfall warning, rainfall warning, wind warning, storm surge, blowing snow, blizzard and (deep breath) ice fog.
If you live anywhere in Canada, chances are you’re under at least one of these warnings or advisories right now.
The Environment Canada warning map has more red on it than the flag — all during one of the busiest travel times of the season.
A big storm in Ontario and Quebec, a messy winter mix in B.C., extreme cold in parts of the West, and heavy rain and high winds in Atlantic Canada are already affecting travel or causing power outages in some areas.
300,000 without power in Ontario, Quebec
Hydro One, Ontario’s largest electricity utility, said crews had already responded to “significant” power outages Friday morning as high winds hit regions across the province. The utility’s outage map showed roughly 66,000 customers without power as of noon ET. Hydro-Quebec’s outage map shows 240,000 customers without power.
Darryl Wilton, president of the Ontario Paramedic Association, told CBC News Network on Friday morning paramedics in the province were dealing with treacherous conditions.
- CBC Lite: If the power or data on your device is low, get your storm updates on CBC Lite. It’s our low-bandwidth, text-only website.
“It started late last night, and with the precipitation we’ve had everything from snow to freezing rain to extraordinarily high winds, gusts over 100 km/h,” Wilton said while outside in Ottawa. “They’ve taken down trees, they’ve taken power lines, and the area where I am right now also has no power. So the hazards are high, but we’re still out there responding, doing what we need to do.”
Wilton said motorists should stay home.
“We’re already seeing crashes. There’s a lot of ice build-up already, and it’s only going to get worse throughout the weekend.”
WATCH | ‘Do not venture out if you don’t need to,’ Ontario paramedics urge:
Ontario Paramedic Association president Darryl Wilton urges the public to avoid creating ‘unnecessary emergencies’ during the storm, and to adjust their holiday travel plans to stay home.
The Ontario Provincial Police say roads are slick, slushy and littered with downed trees and power lines, with some areas experiencing low to zero visibility.
A stretch of the busy Highway 401 has been closed in both directions between London, Ont., and Tilbury, Ont., with multiple accidents reported.
“We may only see one of these storms every five or 10 years,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Mitch Meredith. “I’ve only seen a couple of storms like this in the last 20 years.”
Several school boards, including the Toronto District School Board and boards in Ottawa and London, Ont., have shut schools for the day.
Late Thursday, WestJet proactively cancelled flights at airports in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
The airline says the cancellations apply to all flights scheduled to arrive and depart Toronto’s Pearson International Airport since 9 a.m. ET today — other airports affected by the service disruptions include those in Ottawa, London, Montreal and Waterloo.
Air Canada says it has cancelled “a number of flights” in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto today, including all its flights out of Toronto’s downtown island airport.
‘We want everyone to remain safe’
In B.C., most of the South Coast including Vancouver is being warned of a messy mix. Bus services, ferry sailings and flights have all been affected.
Environment Canada is forecasting freezing rain, with the agency warning of icy accumulations between five and 25 millimetres. Vancouver International Airport says the freezing rain will arrive on top of as much as 14 centimetres of snow that fell overnight.
“Rarely do we see such heavy snowfall followed by freezing rain and heavy rainfall. We want everyone to remain safe,” provincial Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said at a news conference Thursday.
BC Hydro says more than 5,000 customers are without power across the province, with the largest outages concentrated across Vancouver Island and on the Lower Mainland.
Forecasters are eyeing the potential for flooding as temperatures nudge 10 C this weekend and 50 to 80 millimetres of rain is expected to drench the region by Saturday night.
Things aren’t quite as bad elsewhere in the country, but they aren’t good:
- The weather continues to be frigid in parts of Yukon, Northwest Territories, northern B.C. and the Prairies, with temperatures in the –40s or –50s C depending on the region.
- Heavy rains are expected in the Atlantic provinces, with some high winds, storm surge or freezing rain in certain regions. Environment Canada warns driving could be treacherous. Electrical utilities are warning residents to prepare for potential power outages, and airline departure boards at the Halifax
airport were indicating delays and cancellations of some flights at 10:30 a.m. AT.
U.S. doing it bigger
The U.S. is being affected by the same deep freezes and winter storms as us, but there it’s affecting more people.
More than 240 million people — about 60 per cent of the U.S. population — were under some form of winter weather advisory or warning on Friday.
WATCH | Widespread weather advisories in U.S.:
The U.S. National Weather Service reported that over 240 million people, or roughly 60 per cent of the country’s population, are under some form of winter weather warning or advisory on the season’s busiest travel day.
The U.S. National Weather Service says its warning map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever.”
More than 3,400 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were cancelled Friday, and more than 458,000 homes and businesses were without power Friday morning.
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