Addendum: Heavy snowfall warnings are up for central Ontario north of a line from Owen Sound to Ottawa. Freezing rain warnings are up for most of eastern Ontario.
Special weather statement
Updated by Environment Canada
At 6:02 AM EST Tuesday 17 January 2012.
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Special weather statement for:
=new= City of Toronto
=new= Windsor – Essex – Chatham-Kent
=new= Sarnia – Lambton
=new= Elgin
=new= London – Middlesex
=new= Simcoe – Delhi – Norfolk
=new= Dunnville – Caledonia – Haldimand
=new= Oxford – Brant
=new= Niagara
=new= City of Hamilton
=new= Halton – Peel
=new= York – Durham
=new= Huron – Perth
=new= Waterloo – Wellington
=new= Belleville – Quinte – Northumberland
=new= Kingston – Prince Edward
Dufferin – Innisfil
Grey – Bruce
Barrie – Orillia – Midland
Peterborough – Kawartha Lakes
Stirling – Tweed – South Frontenac
Bancroft – Bon Echo Park
Brockville – Leeds and Grenville
Port Carling – Port Severn
Bracebridge – Gravenhurst
Haliburton – Minden – Southern Haliburton County.
Patchy dense fog over areas near the Lower Great Lakes.
Mixed precipitation over northern sections.
Sharp temperature drop to below freezing late this afternoon or evening.
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Special weather statement ended for:
Cornwall – Morrisburg
Smiths Falls – Lanark – Sharbot Lake
Town of Parry Sound – Rosseau – Killbear Park
Huntsville – Baysville.
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==discussion==
A deepening low pressure system over southern lower Michigan will reach Southern Ontario near the Sarnia area this morning then track northeast to between Toronto and Barrie by this evening. This low is then expected to keep moving across Eastern Ontario then pass over the Ottawa area into Southern Quebec tonight.
Milder air has arrived across Southern Ontario accompanied by a general 10 to 20 mm rainfall which is expected today. An isolated thunderstorm is also possible across Southwestern Ontario as the low pressure system gets close. Fog patches have also developed in the mild air and visibility may occasionally drop to a couple hundred metres or less in areas of dense fog this morning, resulting in difficult driving conditions. The fog should lift later today as the winds pick up from the southwest.
Further north, in areas extending from southern grey and Bruce counties across Simcoe County and Muskoka into the Kawarthas, temperatures will be struggling to stay just above the zero degree mark. As a result various mixtures of wet snow, rain, ice pellets and even some brief freezing rain will fall today as the low passes today. This mixed precipitation may cause untreated roads to become slippery at times. Making travelling conditions difficult.
As the low pressure area passes by later today, it will drag a sharp Arctic cold front into Southern Ontario beginning later this afternoon then into Eastern Ontario this evening. Temperatures will fall quite quickly to several degrees below freezing within about 2 to 3 hours after the front passes by. This may result in untreated surfaces quickly freezing and becoming locally icy and slippery, resulting in suddenly hazardous winter travelling conditions, especially if rain showers are falling shortly before the
Temperature drops below the freezing mark. There is some potential for a flash freeze in some areas later this afternoon over Southwestern Ontario and this evening in areas further east, and Environment Canada is closely monitoring this situation as a result.
In areas extending from the Bruce Peninsula across Parry Sound to Ottawa and Brockville and northeast, snowfall, winter storm and freezing rain warnings are in effect today. Travel into these Regions is not recommended.
Please monitor the latest forecasts and warnings from Environment Canada at WWW.WEATHEROFFICE.GC.CA.
