The first taste of winter weather is expected to blast the London area Thursday night.
Environment Canada has issued a snow squall warning for London and Middlesex County. The warning extends to eastern Lambton County and to Huron and Perth counties.
As a cold front moves over the area, the national weather reporting agency is forecasting afternoon rainshowers will turn into flurries Thursday evening, before snow squalls potentially develop overnight.
The advisory warns of dangerous driving conditions as snow may cause low visibility at times.
For the first time this season, OPP is reminding drivers, if you see snow, go slow.
“Winter driving is not rocket science, it is common sense. Driving slowly, keeping distance between vehicles, making sure your vehicle is sound for winter driving and making sure your skills are competent with the weather, those are the things that will keep everybody safe on our roadways,” said West Region OPP Sgt. Dave Rektor.
He also had a few tips on how to prepare for winter driving conditions.
Besides getting stuck during a storm, Rektor said the kits are also good if you’re ever stuck in hours-long traffic.
“Emergency kits are not only great if you’re stranded somewhere, but if you’re stuck on the 400-series highways in a long lineup of traffic that’s not moving,” Rektor said. “That’s another time when the emergency kit can come in handy because you’ve got extra clothing in there to keep warm, you should have fluids and some snacks on deck to make sure that you can sustain yourself for a period of time until help can get to you.”
If you’re planning to travel on the roads during this week’s storm, or at any time throughout the winter season, Safety Canada is encouraging everyone to make an emergency plan and get an emergency kit with drinking water, food, medicine, a first-aid kit and a flashlight.
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Meanwhile, London’s snow plow and salt truck fleet is standing at the ready.
“We’re fully prepared, the drivers are prepared. We’ve gone over our equipment a few times and checked the calibration, We’ve been doing that over the last little while. So that puts us in a good place to be ready to go,” said John Parsons, London’s division manager of transportation and roadside operations. “I understand that the system may intensify overnight. With that, if we need to add road plows to that, we can,”
“We have 30 road plows ready to go, and we also have 14 sidewalk machines ready to go if we need them,” Parsons said. In addition, the city has 27 salt trucks ready to go.
He said their winter shift started on Sunday, putting them in a position to be of service 24 hours a day, seven days a week until April.
Parsons adds that they follow the provincial minimum maintenance standard, which requires bus routes and main roads be plowed first, while local roads are only plowed if more than 10 centimetres of snow has accumulated.
These will be the first significant snow squalls of the season. Environment Canada has said total snowfall accumulations of more than 15 cm are possible for areas that receive multiple snow squalls.
With files from Liny Lamberink
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