Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for Hamilton and parts of Niagara Region.
Canada’s weather agency says it’s expecting the white stuff to start falling late Friday, reducing visibility on the roads due to “rapidly accumulating snow.”
“There remains some uncertainty at this point to the placement of the heaviest snow,” meteorologists said in a statement. “Snowfall warnings or winter weather travel advisories may be issued as the event draws nearer.”
As of Friday afternoon, Hamilton and St. Catharines were under a winter storm warning with between 15 and 25 centimetres of snow expected in Hamilton by Saturday.
St. Catharines is likely to get 10 to 20 cm over the same period, with other areas of Niagara Region, including Fort Erie and Niagara Falls, getting lower amounts – 5 to 15 cm.
Global News senior meteorologist Anthony Farnell says the afternoon commute is where the heaviest rates of snowfall is expected to happen, with as much as 4 to 6 cm per hour.
“Combined with winds of 60 to even 70 kilometers per hour … the end result is just going to be kind of a mess everywhere,” Farnell told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
“Snow plows can’t keep up with that, and that snow sticks to just about everything.”
Farnell says the system coming started from the west coast and a storm that’s been tracked for days.
“It came on to the coast near Vancouver and Victoria, and then down into California, across the desert southwest in the U.S.,” he said.
“Now Texas with severe weather last night … all that Gulf of Mexico moisture is coming up towards southern Ontario.”
Friday’s low is expected to hover around 0 C.
Saturday should see more snow until around noon, with a mix of sun and cloud and high of 3 C for the afternoon.
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