Toronto has declared a ‘major snow condition.’ Here’s what that means

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Torontonians are digging out from the largest snowstorm the city has seen in the last two years, prompting officials to declare a “major snow condition” and open its Emergency Operations Centre.

City officials made the declaration during a news conference on Monday morning, hours before the snow started falling.

The declaration is typically only made when “significant amounts of snow are expected to accumulate that exceed the capacity of the road allowance,” the city says.

• READ MORE: What you need to know about getting around the city following a major winter storm
• LATEST FORECAST: A closer look at the hour-by-hour conditions in the GTA.

When a “major snow condition” has been declared, parking on roads designated as snow routes is also prohibited to pave the way for snow removal.

“You need to pay attention—if you go to park your car later this afternoon or this evening, that there’s not one of these signs on the route because this is a location where we would designate the major snow route and where we would be enforcing that after 10 p.m. tonight,” Barbara Gray, general manager of the city’s transportation services division, told reporters at the Wednesday morning news conference.

Snow routes are primarily located throughout downtown Toronto, including streetcar routes, and are clearly signed. Drivers can look online to the city’s website and map for a full list of streets that will be impacted by the declaration of a major snow storm condition.

Anyone who is found parking on a designated snow route during that time is subject to a fine of $200, and the vehicle may also be tagged, towed and impounded.

How long will snow removal efforts take?

Due to the amount of snow, the city has also declared a “significant weather event.”

The city says that declaration exempts the city from provincial service standards for winter maintenance and enables it to open its Emergency Operations Centre “to coordinate resources from across City divisions, agencies and corporations and partners.”

Vincent Sferrazza, the city’s director of transportation services, says that residents can expect an “all hands on deck operation” to fully remove the snow.

Sferrazza says the city will salt arterial roadways, expressways and the collectors as a first line of defence. Then, as soon as the snow starts sticking to the ground, the snow removal efforts will pivot to a “full-plowing exercise of all infrastructure,” he said.

Hundreds of staff and 1,400 pieces of equipment are set to be deployed throughout the evening into Friday, according to the city’s director of transportation services.

“It’s going to take at least three rounds, if not more, to service all of the locations,” Sferrazza said.

After plowing, Sferrazza says the city will transition to full-on “snow removal” efforts—something they have to do since Toronto’s forecast calls for below freezing temperatures over the weekend, meaning the snow will not likely melt.

He said that as part of those efforts the city will be opening up various snow dumps or snow storage sites across Toronto.

“It’s not often that we have to actually transition to the removal of snow, but when you get such a significant amount of snow,” Sferrazza said. “That will likely happen early next week, probably around Monday or so.

“We ask that our residents please be patient and hold off making any service requests until we have, in fact, completed most of our rounds. It will give our crews the time to ensure that they’re able to service as many kilometres of roads, sidewalks, cycling infrastructure as possible.”

A total of 21 centimetres of snow had landed at Pearson International Airport as of early Thursday morning.

There could also be more snow on the way for Saturday and Sunday, with the city warning of the possibility of a combined 35 centimetres of snow over the coming days.