Just as parts of eastern Ontario and Quebec begin recovering from Wednesday’s freezing rain storm, another winter system is lining up for Ontario on Friday—this time set to bring mainly snow.
Yesterday’s storm coated the Montreal and Ottawa regions in heavy ice, cancelling more than 180 flights and delaying another 131 at Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL), Open Jaw reported last night.
More than 200,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without electricity this morning after the winter storm stretched into the night, knocking out power across parts of the province. Montreal was among the hardest-hit areas, with more than 32,000 addresses affected.
Now, Evironment Canada is warning that much of southern Ontario could see a round of wintry weather on Friday (13MAR). Snow is expected to be the main feature, with the system moving east from the West Coast, tracking across the Prairies, and bringing 5 to 20 cm — just as one of the year’s busiest travel periods, March Break, kicks off.
From 12MAR to 22MAR, Pearson Airport is expecting 1.7 million passengers, with close to or over 1,000 flights each day. “We’ve had three days of beautiful weather, but over the next couple of days we could see a transition Friday, Saturday, Sunday into a bit of a snow-rain mix,” said YYZ Airport Duty Manager Andre Nadeau on CP24.
Open Jaw will be following developments throughout March Break and reporting on any weather-related travel disruptions.
