Snow Squalls Target Parts of Southern Ontario on Friday With Up to 15-30cm Possible
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February is starting on a chilly note across Southern Ontario with the arrival of extremely cold temperatures late Thursday. This is courtesy of a sharp cold front cutting across the region which also sparked an intense snow squall that brought a brief shot of heavy snow across Southern Ontario on Thursday afternoon and evening.
For more information on the upcoming extreme cold, please check out our temperature forecast HERE
At this point in the winter, lake effect snow is usually not a concern considering that the lakes tend to be frozen over by now. That isn’t the case this year as the rather mild winter has led to very little ice coverage on the lakes. The bitterly cold air combined with a strong northwesterly flow will result in the development of snow squall activity off the southeastern shorelines of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
Bands of lake effect snow are expected to organize late Thursday evening or early Friday morning in the wake of the cold front passing through. The hardest hit regions appear to be the Grey-Bruce, Huron and Perth counties east of Lake Huron along with the southeastern shoreline of Georgian Bay including Collingwood and Wasaga Beach. Snow squalls will be ongoing throughout the day on Friday leading to locally hazardous conditions due to near-zero visibility and rapid snowfall accumulation. Travel within the affected regions is not recommended and at the bare minimum, be sure to leave plenty of time to get to your destination.
By the end of the day on Friday, we are looking at the highest snowfall totals ranging from 15-30cm including much of the regions east of Lake Huron and the Collingwood/Wasaga Beach area. Surrounding regions including Barrie and London could see some occasional snow squall activity as it shifts around throughout the day. Snowfall totals here could approach 10-20cm although this depends on the exact location of the squalls.
Snow squalls from Georgian Bay may also affect the Northern GTA including York Region and the Hwy 400 corridor between Barrie and Vaughan. We don’t expect anything overly significant in terms of accumulation here with up to 10cm, but the sudden whiteouts would be a big concern when it comes to driving conditions.
The lake effect snow is expected to briefly come to an end late Friday as a weak system moves into the region from the northwest early Saturday morning. Snow squalls may redevelop northeast of Georgian Bay on the weekend leading to accumulating snow around Parry Sound and North Bay. More details on that in a separate forecast to be posted on Friday.
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