Markham, ON - Recently, my blog is so focused on the east, that I never had the time to do the west. Just a brief update: Vancouver, BC, saw its first snow back on November 30, 2007.

This update #3 informs you briefly as to how the storm impacted the Greater Toronto Area.

The snow started at around 9 pm EST on Saturday night. First coming down very lightly as a result of the head of the warm front coming through, the snow gradually intensified to falling at around 0.8 cm/hour.  With temperature reached its low at around midnight Saturday, at -11 C, the temperature climbs throughout the night and throughout Sunday, as a result from the warmth blown in from the Gulf of Mexico. The snow gradually stopped by 9 am EST on Sunday morning, as the warm front completely penetrates through the Greater Toronto Area. In Markham, snow thickness totaled up to 15 cm! Precipitation stopped throughout the whole day, leaving a cloudy sky. Then at noon hour, the temperature suddenly dropped by 3 C, towards -4 C, accompanying with some freezing drizzle. The freezing drizzle continued until 8 pm EST Sunday night, with the temperature start rising again at around 4 pm. The temperature never rose above 0 C in Markham. In some nearby weather stations, however, temperature was reported to be up to 3 C! Rain was falling ever since 8 pm EST, and did not stop until 1 am EST on Monday night. In northern Markham, such as Berczy Village and Cornell, surface temperature was cold enough for the rain to become freezing rain. The ice accumulation was up to 5 mm.

In the morning, accident rate on highways was rocket high, due to the rapidly falling temperature from -0.2 C to -6 C, causing water on the roads to refreeze into ice.

After dealing with this storm, there are 2 threats for the next 2 days:
1) Another Colorado low possibly developing, but much weaker than the last one due to lack of jet stream support. The GTA will see snow around Tuesday night to Wednesday morning with 5 cm of snow possible.
2) Lake Effect Snowsqualls kicking in! In fact, it is now affecting much of Southern Ontario, Pennsylvania, New York, and Michigan. The storm that left us with 15 cm of snow have more bad news to announce. What had supported the development of the storm was the crash between frigid Arctic air (that brought down temperatures in Thompson to -41 C earlier this week), and warmth from the Gulf of Mexico. Now that the storm moved away, the back side of the storm steers cold air into much of Ontario and northeast US (low pressure circulate air counter-clockwise). The cold air is steered by northwesterly winds. And it's a traditional common sense to Southern Ontarians, that when such cold wind is blowing across a warm lake (Georgian Bay water temperature is still at 6 C), lake effect will begin (warm moisture rises from the lake and get blown inland). Snowsqualls warning had been issued to Environment Canada to much of Southwestern Ontario. Such strong northwesterly winds blowing at gusts over 80 km/h can trigger snowsqualls blowing into very far inland. The leeside of Georgian Bay (Grey County, Simcoe County), may see up to 20 to 30 cm of snow, while farther inland towards York Region and Toronto, we may see up to 5 to 15 cm of snow, depending on your location.
Furthermore, snowsqualls are now very far inland according to radar. Snowsqualls off Lake Erie had been reported going as far inland as Scranton, PA. Some even reach out into Atlantic Ocean. It is possible for snowsqualls to join more than one lake. What I meant is that squalls off Lake Huron can find its way into Lakes Erie and Ontario, where it strengthens, and get blown into United States.

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