The first big winter storm of 2023 is bearing down on southern Ontario.
In Kingston, the first signs of the expected heavy snowfall started around noon Wednesday.
Global News meteorologist Anthony Farnell expects the snow to continue overnight and into Thursday.
“Those snowfall rates of nearly two to four centimetres an hour, when you get that type of snow, snowplows have trouble keeping up. So the roads are going to become quite slick,” said Farnell.
Snowplows in Kingston were out early preparing for the deluge of snow.
Anti-ice operations including salting the roads began Tuesday night, according to Troy Stubinski, the operations manager for Kingston’s public works department.
“Today, it’s all hands on deck. Staff are ready. Material is loaded up and looking to respond once things really start to intensify here,” said Stubinski.
The overnight parking ban that prohibits on-street parking from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. has been in effect since the new year.
The ban is intended to keep municipal streets clear, allowing snowplows to clear the streets in an efficient manner.
“We want to get things cleaned up to the curb, so we don’t have to come back and have to do it again. So that parking ban is really important,” said Stubinski. “Especially in some of those tight residential areas, where even without the parking it’s tight, if we’re able to eliminate that parking it makes things a lot safer for our operators.”
Most of the snowfall this winter season has come all at once rather than over a span of several days.
Farnell says this year’s snowfall pattern is irregular compared with past years.
“Typically, we see these Alberta clippers. Those are the storms that originate in Alberta, they’re fast-moving. They generally follow the Arctic cold front, so we see that light, fluffier snow,” said Farnell. “Those are the storms that are lacking so far this year. We haven’t had those five-centimetre amounts because we haven’t had the Alberta clippers.”
The current run of snowfall is expected to end early Thursday but more is forecasted for the upcoming weekend.
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