Winter is technically more than a week away, but Canadians in the Prairies are already enduring temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius, while a storm that dumped snow on southern Ontario is heading to the East Coast.
Regina had temperatures of -33 C earlier today, while Winnipeg hit a low of -29 C. And that's not including the wind chill.
Randy Darbell, a CAA tow truck driver in Manitoba, said the cold snap has drained quite a few car batteries, frustrating drivers.
"Until the cold weather came we were sitting around doing four or five calls, and now it's hectic," he told CTV Winnipeg.
Torontonians had little to complain about temperature-wise, but a nasty storm clogged streets with snow overnight, and then drenched the city with rain in the morning.
"Blowing snow, ice, rain, pellets, heavy snowfall, throughout the morning, whiteouts -- you name it -- we've had a bit of everything," Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Dave Woodford told The Canadian Press.
Woodford was on Greater Toronto Area highways at 4 a.m., contending with dozens of accidents that he blamed on drivers not minding road conditions.
"People seem to think they're indestructible," said Woodford.
"People do not slow down, they think it's not going to happen to them and they're following vehicles too closely."
Between four and eight centimetres of snow fell in parts of the city, while at least 10 centimetres fell in areas to the north.
Strong easterly wind gusts of up to 60 kilometres per hour were forecast for the rest of the day.
The weather wreaked havoc at the city's airports, with about 100 flights cancelled at Pearson International Airport, said Trish Krale, a spokesperson for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority. Some flights out of the Toronto Island Airport were also cancelled, while a number of flights out of both airports were delayed.
At 9 a.m., the storm was blamed for power outages for nearly 16,000 Hydro One customers, according to the utility's website. By early afternoon, fewer than 2,200 customers were without power.
Further east in Ontario, the snowfall caused school bus cancellations in several counties, including Hastings, Prince Edward, Peterborough, Northumberland, Lennox and Addington and Frontenac.
Intense snowfall hit the Ottawa region late Wednesday morning. As much as 25 centimetres of snow was expected to fall on the Ottawa Valley by Wednesday evening, causing a number of cancellations or delays in and out of Ottawa International Airport.
As of 2 p.m. ET, most of Eastern Ontario was still under a winter storm warning, while much of Quebec was under a snowfall warning. Environment Canada also issued wind and blowing snow warnings for parts of the province.
The government weather agency predicted that the snow would be heavy at times in Southwestern Quebec this morning, and would spread toward Central Quebec during the day and into Eastern Quebec this evening. Those living in the St. Lawrence Valley could see up to 35 centimetres as a result of the storm. Other parts of the province will likely see between 15 and 25 centimetres.
Montreal was also getting hammered by mid-afternoon, with between 20 and 30 centimetres of snow expected by late this evening.
The storm was expected to hit parts of Atlantic Canada by Wednesday evening. Much of New Brunswick was under a snowfall warning, which forecast that as much as 25 centimetres of snow would fall in the province by early Thursday.
In the U.S., hundreds of schools were closed from the upper Midwest through New England, as a result of the storm.
Nebraska, Kansas and Minnesota each received heavy snowfall, and central Michigan was also blanketed by snow. Parts of New England were supposed to see up to 30 centimetres by the end of the day. Similar amounts of snowfall were expected in northern New York.
Even parts of the west got blasted by the storm earlier this week. California was drenched with rain, and the city of Flagstaff, Ariz., saw more than 50 centimetres of snow fall on Monday quadrupling a 53-year-old record for that day.
Jim Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, said that by the time the storm moves off the Maine coast on Thursday night, it may have affected as much as two-thirds of the country.
"It's a monster of a storm," Lee said.
With files from The Canadian Press
