Hamilton’s manager of roadway maintenance expects the “tricky part” of a forthcoming storm, set to hit the city late Thursday, will likely be the morning commute Friday.
Peter Sniuolis says Environment Canada’s forecast calling for rain and “flash freezing” in the first period of a multi-day weather event could prove to be challenging if it produces frozen roads.
“It looks like it’s going to be starting off with quite a bit of rain, up to 25 to 30 millimetres, and eventually into Friday switching over to snow,” Sniuolis told Global News.
“So we are prepared for this and it’s just the tricky part for us is going to be that 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. portion on Friday morning.”
Canada’s weather agency says Hamilton and Niagara Region will see rain or snow late Thursday, with temperatures expected to plummet Friday.
Environment Canada’s warning says “blizzard conditions” are likely for much of Ontario late Friday and likely to bring lake-effect snow and “cold winds” through the holiday weekend.
Global News Skytracker models suggest between 5 to 10 centimetres of total snowfall in the Hamilton area and potentially 20 to 40 for the Fort Erie area could fall between late Thursday and early Sunday night.
Sniuolis revealed the city has 160 combination plows, both in-house and contracted, ready to go for Friday with another 50 sidewalk plows.
“In addition to that, we have various other pieces of equipment that we deploy as required, it’s just the amount we deploy based on a storm-by-storm basis,” he said.
Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell says the “worst” of the holiday storm is likely to come Saturday with “potentially damaging winds” accompanying heavy precipitation.
“Wind is really the biggest concern, in my opinion, with this developing storm,” said Farnell.
“We’ll have gusts in the 60 to 90 km/h range easily and that will blow around quite a bit of the snow.”
The prediction prompted the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority to issue a flood warning late Wednesday afternoon suggesting winds will increase water levels and wave action along the Lake Erie shoreline.
Hamilton’s medical officer of health issued a cold weather alert to take effective on Friday with the expectation of wind chill values will hit around -27 C in the afternoon and linger through the overnight Saturday.
The alert has now activated city-run recreation centre warming locations that will be open to the public, including those considered vulnerable and experiencing homelessness.
A full list of options can be seen on the city of Hamilton’s website.
An Alectra utilities spokesperson says the outlet is reassuring customers they’ve taken initiatives to prepare for the storm, continuously monitoring forecasts and deploying extra emergency response crews available to restore power outages.
“We also have extra control room operators and communication staff to respond to our customers,” Ashley Trgachef said.
“One thing that we really want to get across to our customers is that if you come across a downed power line, please stay at least 10 metres away and call 911 immediately.”
The winter solstice — when one of the two Earth poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun — arrived on Wednesday, just after a large system started to sweep across Canada, beginning on the west coast.
Environment Canada issued 32 extreme cold weather and a dozen Arctic outflow warnings for B.C. on Wednesday with below seasonal temperatures expected, including wind chill values approaching minus 20 for the Lower Mainland.
Alberta remains mired in a December deep freeze as of Wednesday with over two-dozen temperature records unofficially smashed.
Sniuolis says when enough of the white stuff arrives in Hamilton, plowing priorities will be similar to previous seasonal operations with the escarpments and Class 1 roads cleared first, followed by collectors and residential.
“Prior to a storm we do station stuff on the escarpments just to ensure the safety of everybody going up and down as well as the Priority 1 roads such as the Linc,” Sniuolis explained.
“With sidewalks, those are completed 24 hours after the end of the snow event.”
The general forecast for Hamilton and parts of Niagara Region is calling for calmer weather on Christmas Day with a mix of sun and a high of -6 C.
Farnell says the good news is that temperatures will be “above average” by the middle of next week.
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