Winter storm hits southern Ontario; Toronto under snowfall warning

Road conditions were poor throughout Toronto and on major highways on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013.

Parts of southern Ontario were pummelled with snow Saturday with more of the white stuff expected to fall throughout the weekend.

Snow fell throughout much of the day Saturday in the Greater Toronto Area, with Environment Canada warning that parts of the city, particularly those situated along the water, may see as much as 15 to 20 cm by Sunday morning.

Road conditions were poor throughout the city and on major highways. Early Saturday afternoon, an Ontario Provincial Police Twitter account said police were receiving approximately 50 accident reports each hour.

Later in the day, the OPP said that two people had died following a two vehicle collision north of Barrie. While the exact cause of the crash has not yet been determined, police said that road conditions were poor.

Another crash on Saturday morning involved as many as 30 vehicles on the westbound QEW between Erin Mills Parkway and Winston Churchill Boulevard in Mississauga.

Both the OPP and the Toronto Police are advising motorists to drive slowly and leave plenty of room between vehicles.

OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford told CTV News Channel that in 31 years on the job, he hadn’t seen so many accidents on a single day.

“I haven’t seen this kind of traffic, the number of collisions that I’ve seen today. All day long, it was just continuous,” he said. “This was right across the GTA … collision after collision.”

Woodford said most of the accidents involved single vehicles ending up in ditches. He said many people are not driving due to the conditions.

The weather was also affecting public transit. Some GO Trains were delayed close to an hour on Saturday evening.

Other parts of the province saw similar conditions. Environment Canada said that Hamilton and Burlington could see as much as 25 cm of snow by Sunday as cold easterly winds pick up extra moisture from the relatively mild waters of Lake Ontario.

To the east, Kingston was under a storm warning Saturday afternoon with Environment Canada warning of significant blowing snow.

Snow is also expected to hit Ottawa Saturday evening and intensify into Sunday. Residents in Eastern Ontario could see temperatures as low as minus 30C with the wind chill.