Canada’s weather agency says multi-day lake-effect snow starting Thursday night is likely to hinder travel through the holiday weekend.
Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for the Hamilton and Niagara Region Monday calling for rain or snow late Thursday, with temperatures expected to plummet Friday.
“Rapidly falling temperatures will be accompanied by strong to potentially damaging winds along with snow that may be heavy at times,” the agency said.
“While there is high confidence in a high impact winter storm, the details regarding wind speeds, precipitation types and amounts remain highly uncertain at this time.”
Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell says the “worst of it” appears to be earmarked for Saturday via a combination of lake effect snow and cold wind.
“I’m talking gusts 100 kilometres per hour and that could cause significant power outages as well,” Farnell said.
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“So you don’t want to wake up Christmas morning with no electricity, but it’s a distinct possibility with a storm of this magnitude.”
The general forecast is calling for calmer weather on Saturday night with just a few clouds followed by a mix of sun and clouds Sunday with a high of -5 C.
The winter solstice — when one of the two Earth poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun — is set to arrive on Wednesday, just before a large system is expected to sweep across Canada.
The event is so big that Environment Canada issued advisories and special statements for much of the country on Tuesday.
Last week, Canadians dealt with the impacts of a massive system that brought winter storm conditions across Western Canada, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
Between 20 and 30 centimetres of snow fell in the Metro Vancouver area overnight Tuesday, impacting operations at its international airport.
There were no flights departing as of 7:30 a.m. as crews worked to clear the airfield and aircraft of snow and ice.
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