Cottage country buried in snow after Ontario ‘major weather event’

Intense squalls led to a heavy blanket of snow across much of cottage country on Sunday.

One town declared a state of emergency after road closures and massive power outages, following a similarly intense storm on the shores of the Great Lakes on Saturday.

Highway 11, which connects areas like Bracebridge, Ont., with Orillia and Barrie, was closed after the snowstorm made it impassable and led to a number of crashes in whiteout conditions.

As of 4 p.m. on Sunday, the closure ran in both directions from Huntsville to Orillia, with many vehicles along the route.

Gravenhurst, which is in the Muskoka region and connected by the highway, was hit with 140 centimetres of snowfall and declared a state of emergency.

Snowmobile-riding first responders took to otherwise impassable roads to help rescue people from stranded vehicles around Muskoka, police said. It was unclear how many people were still stranded on Sunday, though a police spokesperson suggested some had been stuck overnight.

OPP Detachment Commander Wade Beebe said the force was monitoring the “major weather event” that had blanketed Muskoka.

“We are encouraging people to stay off the roadways — and monitor your gas if you can within your vehicles,” he said in a video.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a social media post on Sunday that his government would make extra resources available to help the snow-struck town.

“We’re working closely with local authorities in Gravenhurst and across the Muskoka region to make sure they have everything they need to respond to yesterday’s snowstorm,” the premier wrote.

Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell said the volume of snow dumped on parts of the province was due to the warm weather from the past weeks finally meeting winter chills.

“It’s been a very mild and calm fall up until now and that has led to record warm water temperatures on all five of the Great Lakes, including Georgian Bay,” he said. “So, record warm water and now finally the arctic air is here and that’s the reason we’re having such intense snow squalls.”

The snow threat now looks to be moving further south, with Environment Canada issuing snow squall warnings and predicting 15 to 25 centimetres of snow for communities on the edge of Lake Huron and the southern shores of Georgian Bay.

Squalls are also expected as far south as London, Ont., and could drop up to 30 centimetres of snow on the western Ontario city by Tuesday morning.

A weather advisory for between five and 10 cm of snow was issued for Kitchener and Newmarket, as well as parts of Brampton and Guelph.

“An intense snow squall will move south across the area this afternoon and evening,” Environment Canada said.

“Brief but intense snowfall could affect road conditions and result in significantly reduced visibility. While most areas may only see a few centimetres of snow, accumulations in excess of 10 centimetres are possible for locations west of Orangeville to Kitchener.”

Sunday’s wintry conditions were the second consecutive days of intense snow for many.

On Saturday, almost a metre of snow blew off the Great Lakes and closed a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway. More than 30,000 homes were also without power after the storm.

Communities on the shores of lakes Superior and Huron felt the brunt of the weather event and remained under a snow squall warning. Areas around Niagara Falls and Kingston were also under lake-effect snow squall watches.

The threat of more snow, according to Farnell, isn’t going away.

“It’s not going to melt, the cold air keeps coming right through next week and that means more snow,” he said.

— with files from The Canadian Press