Mother Nature did bring what she promised Saturday, but not until the afternoon.
It started out with gusty winds up to 60 km/h, followed by ice pellets that came down in full force. Conditions on the roads were very slick as the ice starting building up. Kingston Public Works, though, was already on the ball — they started salting the roads around noon.
Operations Manager Bill Linnen at Kingston Public Works said, “We planned ahead to make sure that we had enough crew and supervisors on staff to be able to respond to the storm whenever it did start.”
CKWS spoke with Kingston Police and they said that, fortunately, there haven’t been any reports of accidents. They are, however, keeping a close watch on icy cars on the roads and asking drivers to slow down and only be on the roads if necessary.
Due to these icy conditions, lots of cancellations are also in place for Kingston.
All Air Canada flights bound for Kingston Norman Rogers Airport have been cancelled. All flights leaving until Sunday morning are also cancelled.
VIA Rail, Coach Canada and local transit are still running on their regular schedule — with delays, of course.
Lots of outdoor sporting events and weekend extracurricular activities were also cancelled.
Freezing rain warnings are in effect and will remain until at least Sunday night for southern Ontario.
Environment Canada is forecasting ice pellets mixed with snow as we head into the night. They are also predicting an ice storm for Sunday with a possible ice build up of 10 to 20 millimeters and power outages.
CKWS spoke with Utilities Kingston and they say they haven’t yet received any reports of power outages. Depending on the weather, they’re monitoring to see what happens next.
Significant rainfall is also likely by the end of Sunday which could result in potential flooding in and around Kingston. We’ll have to wait and see what Mother Nature brings by the end of this weekend.
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