Season’s largest snowstorm lands in Ottawa

The biggest snowstorm of the winter so far buried Ottawa under almost 20 cm of snow by Thursday night. CTV’s Katelyn Wilson reports.

The biggest winter storm of the season disrupted all modes of travel in Ottawa on Thursday, with up to 35 centimetres of snow expected by the end of the day.

The City of Ottawa has issued an overnight winter weather parking ban, with parking prohibited on city streets between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Police have reported nearly 200 collisions on roads in Ottawa and across eastern Ontario, and several flights have been delayed and cancelled at the Ottawa Airport.

• Send your photos: We want to see your photos of the snow. Email [e-mail] and we will show the photos online and on CTV News at 5 and CTV News at 6.

The Ottawa Police Service said, as of 4:30 p.m., there had been a total of 87 collisions across the Ottawa region, including both on-scene collisions attended by patrol officers and incidents reported by drivers at Collision Reporting Centres.

The OPP said its officers repsonded to nearly 100 collisions between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. in eastern Ontario.

Environment Canada has issued a “Orange Warning-Snowfall” for Ottawa and eastern Ontario, calling for 20 to 35 cm of snow in Ottawa by the end of the day.

• All school buses cancelled in Ottawa and eastern Ontario on Thursday

The weather agency says the snow will continue through the day before tapering off tonight.

“A low-pressure system will continue to bring significant snowfall to much of southern Ontario,” the weather agency said.

“Very cold wind chills, during ongoing snowfall, will add to the adverse weather conditions. Travel will likely be hazardous. There may be a significant impact on rush hour traffic.”

Environment Canada meteorologist Monica Vaswani said heavy snow is expected at times through the day.

“The heaviest snow should start to ease up by around 6 p.m., but it’s still going to snow after that,” Vaswani told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa at Work.

“Into the evening hours, we’re still expecting flurries. The worst of it will be done by 6. After 9 p.m., flurries until about 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.”

As of 5 p.m., 17 centimetres of snow had been recorded at the Ottawa Airport, while 13 cm of snow was on the ground at the Gatineau Airport. Estimates along the St. Lawrence Seaway had between 15 and 20 cm.

Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips warns this is “winter starting all over again,” after seven days of temperatures above normal.

“The protracted January thaw is over; we may not see it again until February because what we’re going to see the temperatures really change,” Phillips said.

“We’re going to see temperatures begin to fall to seasonal or below seasonal values.”

• After the driveway, shovel out natural gas meters, vents, fire hydrants, too

In Pictures

Parking ban

An overnight parking ban has been issued for the City of Ottawa tonight due to the snow.

The city says the overnight winter weather parking ban will be in effect from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Only vehicles with on-street parking permits will be permitted to park on city streets during the parking ban.

Alternative parking during a parking ban can be found by visiting the city’s Winter Parking webpage.

• When does the City of Ottawa issue winter weather parking bans?

City of Ottawa’s response to the storm

The City of Ottawa says all crews have been deployed to clear sidewalks, priority roads, bus routes and the Transitway.

“Roads and sidewalks and the winter cycling network are snow-covered. What our main focus is right now is we’re cycling our beats,” Bryden Denyes, area manager of Ottawa’s roads, told Newstalk 580 CFRA Thursday morning.

“The main focus is plowing all roads, getting through our sidewalks and winter cycling network and then just going over and over them again to try and keep as much snow off the road and sidewalk as possible.”

Denyes says residential roads will take longer to clear.

“Right now, our plan is to be getting into those later this evening and overnight to start clearing those up for tomorrow morning’s commute.”

Denyes says the focus today will be on clearing the major roads.

“Throughout the whole storm, our focus will be on moving as much snow off the roads and sidewalks as we can, and then we’ll switch to cleanup operations tonight,“ Denyes said.

“Our crews will be back in working through all our roads, including residential streets, sidewalks, all night and the cleanup will take into tomorrow.”

Highway 401

Emergency crews have responded to collisions on Hwy. 401 in eastern Ontario.

Ontario Provincial Police said Highway 401 westbound was closed at County Road 6 in Odessa Thursday afternoon due to a collision involving a transport truck and a vehicle.

No injuries have been reported.

Those lanes reopened just before 3 p.m.

A collision between Reynolds Road in Lansdowne and Mallorytown Road in Mallorytown closed eastbound lanes of Highway 401. Several minor injuries were reported, and police say one child sustained serious injuries.

Travel

Travellers are being advised to check their flight status before heading to the Ottawa Airport for a flight on Thursday and Friday.

As of 5 p.m., 10 arrival flights and nine departures had been cancelled at the Ottawa Airport, and several flights had been delayed.

Via Rail is reporting some delays on trains due to the storm.

St. Lawrence College

St. Lawrence College says all afternoon and evening classes, labs and on-campus activities are cancelled at the Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall campuses.

“We recommend any class or lab that begins before 1:00 p.m., wrap up as close to 1:00 p.m. as possible to enable people to travel home before snow continues to accumulate,” the college said.

Forecast

Flurries will end near midnight then partly cloudy with a 30 per cent chance of flurries. Low -18 C with the wind chill making it feel like -27.

Friday will be mainly cloudy with a 30 per cent chance of flurries in the morning. Environment Canada says the conditions will clear in the morning. The temperature will be steady near -13 C.

• Hourly and 7-day forecast on our CTVNewsOttawa.ca weather hub

Saturday will be cloudy with a 60 per cent chance of flurries. High 3 C.

The outlook for Sunday calls for mainly cloudy, with a 40 per cent chance of flurries. High -8 C.

The normal temperatures for this time of year are a high of -6 C and a low of -16 C.