Winter Sets In Across Southern Ontario With Up to 6-12cm of Snow on the Way for Sunday
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It’s hard to believe that we’re already well into December considering we have yet to experience the traditional winter weather for this time of the year. The temperature has been relatively mild with the heavy snowfall accumulation being contained to the snowbelt region that has seen a few rounds of lake effect snow over the past few weeks. That will change to an extent over the next 24 hours as a fast-moving system is set to bring snow on Sunday. We could see appreciable accumulation of up to 6-12cm in the hardest hit region by the end of the day.
The snow will start late Saturday starting with Southwestern Ontario, and spreading to the northeast throughout the predawn hours on Sunday. We expect to see the worst condition during the mid to late morning hours across Central Ontario and around the Golden Horseshoe. Those in Eastern Ontario around the Kingston region will see the snow starting later in the morning and lingering into the afternoon. Precipitation will clear from west to east and should fully move out of the province by the late afternoon.
By the time the precipitation tapers off, we expected the heaviest accumulation to encompass higher elevations north of the GTA, much of Central Ontario around Lake Simcoe, and eastward through Peterborough and Kingston. These areas are forecasted to receive between 6-12cm of accumulation although it should be noted that some localized areas could overachieve the forecast and may approach the 15cm mark. The precipitation associated with this system will be quite focused so as a result, accumulation will drop off quite fast outside of the main zone.
We expect between 4-8cm of snow is possible for northern parts of the GTA and just north of the Lake Ontario shoreline. Those near the shoreline including the City of Toronto, Hamilton and Southwestern Ontario will be hovering right near the freezing mark so some of the snow will likely melt on contact or come down in the form of rain. So we are forecasting total accumulation for them ranging from 2 to 6cm. Less than 2cm of snow is expected for the rest of Southern Ontario.
