The Toronto area's latest storm got off to a wet start Wednesday, with soggy snow overnight, followed by ice pellets mixed with snow, but it was expected to get a lot worse by mid-afternoon.

A Toronto street, Wednesday night.
(Robin Rowland/CBC)

Weather forecasters predicted that by the time it's over, the storm will have dropped between 15 and 25 centimetres of snow on the ground. The heaviest snowfall was expected to hit the Greater Toronto Area by Wednesday evening.

By early Wednesday morning, provincial police had already reported more than 170 accidents, most of them involving single vehicles.

OPP Const. David Woodford said people were not taking the weather and road conditions into consideration when they were driving.

"People are travelling too fast. They lose control and hit the guardrail, or [go] into the ditch," he said.

Storm affecting schools, transport and city programs

Because of the storm, school buses and schools were closed in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and Peel District School Board.

School taxis and buses in Dufferin County were cancelled, but all public and Roman Catholic schools there were open with the exception of those dependent on transportation.

All school buses were cancelled in the Durham region.

Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board buses were cancelled, but schools remained open.

All schools were closed and buses cancelled in the Township of Centre Wellington and the town of Erin.

In the Halton Catholic and the Halton District School board, all schools were open, but transportation was cancelled.

Among individual schools, East Garafraxa Public School, Laurelwoods Elementary School, Mono-Amaranth Public School and Primrose Public School were all closed.

Tallpines School in Brampton was closed, as were Brisbane Public School, John Black Public School, Era Mosa Public School and Ponsonby Public School.

Hillfield Strathallan College in Hamilton is closed for the day.

Programs at the community centre in the City of Mississauga were cancelled for the day.

Community Living Toronto day programs were also cancelled.