Ottawa residents still digging out from Sunday night’s dumping of snow are now bracing for freezing rain as Environment Canada warns of rapidly shifting weather conditions in the capital.
The weather agency issued an imminent freezing rain warning at 8:35 a.m. on Monday with the event expected to last until midday before changing to regular rain as the day warms.
Expect slippery conditions on roads and sidewalks, the agency warns.
Ottawa snow crews are out plowing roads Monday morning after a significant snowfall overnight. Some 6.4 centimetres of snow fell before midnight on Sunday, according to Environment Canada. Estimates showed up to 13 centimetres of snow on the ground before the morning’s commute.
School buses were cancelled Monday in Ottawa as well as in Renfrew County, the Upper Canada District School Board and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Schools themselves, however, remained open at all boards across the city.
While OC Transpo advised some bus routes might see slowdowns and stops taken out of service as a result of the inclement weather, the O-Train was running with no reported issues as of 9:30 a.m.
A daytime winter weather parking ban is in effect between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. in Ottawa.
Ottawa is seeing temperatures around 0 C on Monday morning, though that’s expected to rise to a high of 9 C over the course of the day. Temperatures are then forecast to fall back to a low of -10 C overnight with a 60 per cent chance of flurries.