Winter walloped Toronto with a thick blanket of snow early Wednesday and meteorologists warn it's not going away anytime soon.
A weather bulletin from Environment Canada warned that much of southern Ontario will be hit Friday and Sunday by significant snowstorms. The storms appear ominous enough that officials compiling the bulletin actually wrote, "Could this be snow-mageddon?"
Most parts of the city awoke to eight centimetres of snow Wednesday morning, with the southwest reporting slightly higher amounts. It was the same throughout much of southern Ontario, with even typically hard-hit areas such as Barrie seeing only about 10 centimetres.
"Things come in threes," Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson told CBC News by telephone from Mississauga.
"We've got another storm system on Friday that could potentially dump 15 or more centimetres in the Toronto area and another storm system on Sunday that could again leave us with 15-plus centimetres on the ground."
The storms will be followed by a drop in temperatures.
Coulson said the upside is Torontonians are likely to enjoy a white Christmas.
But early Wednesday, motorists were more concerned with navigating the slushy, slippery roads as they drove to work.
By 9 a.m. ET, about 225 accidents had been reported on the region's highways since the snow began falling late Tuesday, Ontario Provincial Police said.
The snow was also believed to be responsible for an Air Canada Jazz plane sliding off a runway while preparing to leave Pearson International Airport at about 11 p.m. Tuesday.
The storm swept in from the U.S. Southwest and quickly passed through Toronto en route to Ottawa, said Coulson
"One of the good things with this system is it was moving at a fairly good clip," said Coulson.
Slow down, OPP urges drivers
With most of Wednesday's early-morning crashes single-vehicle accidents caused by cars spinning out or sliding off icy roads, police were urging drivers to slow down.
"People are just in too much of a hurry, sometimes impatient [and] not slowing down and keeping that distance between other vehicles," said OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford.
Several large accidents happened Tuesday night as the snow began falling, with at least three tractor-trailers jackknifing in Milton, on the Queen Elizabeth Way near Bronte Road and in the Oshawa area, said Woodford.
City crews expected to be clearing snow well into the evening after first rolling out at 3 a.m. when the heaviest snow began tapering off, said Peter Noehammer, the city's director of transportation services.
Noehammer said city officials are "crossing our fingers" that this winter doesn't wallop Toronto like last winter.
The city overspent by $20 million on its $65-million winter maintenance budget last winter, tied for the heaviest snowfall on record.
With files from the Canadian Press
