Worst of freezing rain expected overnight across GTA

TORONTO – As expected, freezing rain has made roads and sidewalks slippery across the GTA.

A freezing rain warning remains in place across southern Ontario, including Toronto, Peel, York and Durham regions.

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The rain started early in the afternoon as a low pressure disturbance made its way into southern Ontario.

As temperatures in some areas dipped below zero, the rain began to freeze on cars, roads, hydro poles and trees.

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Global News Senior Meteorologist, Anthony Farnell, was on the road in eastern Canada where he said he spotted at least 20 cars in ditches.

Mitch Meredith, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said that we can expect the freezing rain to carry on for the next 12 hours, at the least.

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“Generally, in the north end, we’ve seen about two to three milimetres since this afternoon,” he said. “We could see 20 to 30 mm by tomorrow morning.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Generally, in the north end, we've seen about two to three milimetres since this afternoon," he said. "We could see 20 to 30 mm by tomorrow morning."

Meredith said that the roads in Toronto haven’t been too slick yet, but that’s likely due to the city treating them earlier during the day, before most of the freezing rain began to fall.

Many flights are delayed at Pearson International Airport and Billy Bishop Airport.

Katarina Komesarovic, from London, Ont., was trying to stay optimistic that her Saturday night flight from Toronto to Timmins in northeastern Ontario wouldn’t be cancelled, and throw a wrench into her Christmas plans.

“It would be the first year that I have not returned in the nine years that I’ve been away from home, so it would be a big deal – especially for my parents. But I’m hoping… that we do make the flight tonight and I will be able to see them for the holidays,” she said as she was boarding a shuttle bus for Pearson.

READ MORE: Snow, ice pellets and freezing rain hitting Eastern Canada this weekend

Eastern Ontario had already seen upwards of 20 mm of rain by Saturday afternoon.

In Kingston, tree branches became encased in ice and city streets were made slick from freezing rain the night before. More than 14,000 customers in Kingston and other parts of eastern Ontario were hit by outages, according to the website of Ontario’s Hydro One.

With the street in front of his home transformed by ice, Kingston resident Derek Ochej turned the roadway hazard into a “stereotypically Canadian” moment by lacing up his skates.

“It wasn’t too bad. I’ve played on worse rinks before,” he said, with his Saturday morning jaunt captured on video and shared online by his wife.

–with files from The Associated Press