Snow hits Toronto overnight, Thursday morning commute expected to be slow

Toronto has been hit by overnight snowfall, which will make for a slow, messy Thursday morning commute.

Global News’ chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell said the snow started after midnight, and a few centimetres could be on the ground by the time drivers get out on the roads.

“The good news is that the snow will become much lighter around 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., and only another one to two centimetres is likely to fall throughout the rest of the day,” Farnell said.

Temperatures will remain below freezing for most of the day, with the high around -2 C by Thursday afternoon, Farnell said.

A second system is expected to impact the region Thursday night into the first half of Friday with additional snow.

“Colder temperatures will make the snow fluffy and more likely to blow around but amounts with the second system will only be two to five centimetres for Toronto with more in the Niagara Region and east towards Kingston,” Farnell said.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Toronto calling for the possibility of mixed precipitation with snow and freezing drizzle.

“Given the timing of the snow, the morning commute as well as the afternoon or evening commute are likely to be impacted,” the weather agency said in a statement.

The city’s winter operations team said salting operations on main roads started just after midnight and will continue throughout the morning rush hour until plowing operations commence.

The Ontario Provincial Police said they have responded to about 50 overnight collisions, with about 12 collisions on the go as of 6:30 a.m.

One of those collisions involved an officer in Toronto who was responding to another collision on Highway 401 and Leslie. The OPP officer was rear-ended by another vehicle while sitting in his vehicle and was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Police are reminding motorists to “slow down and move over” when emergency crews are out on the roads and there is bad weather.