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Weather Forecast: Canadian Cities

January 14, 2012 by · Comments Off on Weather Forecast: Canadian Cities 

Weather Forecast: Canadian Cities, There were dangerous driving conditions in downtown Toronto on the morning of Friday, Jan. 13, 2012 because of wet, snowy weather.
You may want to adjust your thermostat.

With the temperature expected to drop to a low of – 11 C overnight without the wind chill, the City of Toronto has issued an extreme cold weather alert.

The alert is issued whenever Environment Canada predicts an extreme change in temperatures, issues a wind chill warning or forecasts extreme weather conditions.

During an extreme cold weather alert, street outreach workers canvass the city helping homeless people find shelter.

Messy day on the roads

In addition to cold temperatures, the region was hit with a dangerous mix of snow and strong winds Friday, creating messy driving conditions.

Hundreds of collisions were reported, including a six-vehicle pileup that shut down Highway 401’s ice-covered eastbound lanes at Dundas Street in Woodstock early this morning.

In that crash, a tractor-trailer struck a fire truck as emergency crews were tending to a rolled vehicle and vehicles in the ditch. OPP said several people suffered minor injuries.

There were also been multiple reports of vehicles crashing into guardrails.

Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Dave Woodford told CP24 that 350 collisions were reported between 5 a.m. and noon, including many in the Greater Toronto and Kitchener areas.

Woodford said highway on- and off-ramps are very slippery, so people should slow down and drive with care.

People should give themselves extra time to reach their destination, and leave plenty of room between their vehicle and the vehicle in front of them, just in case they have to hit the brakes, he said.

“People just weren’t slowing down with the conditions they were facing this morning,” Woodford said Friday afternoon. “The collisions were just coming one after another after another.”

As of 4:45 p.m., CAA had received 3,200 calls for service from across the province. During the evening rush, wait times for service within the GTA were between 45 and 55 minutes.

Toronto received about five centimetres of snow as the temperature dropped throughout the day.

Environment Canada previously said regions east of Georgian Bay would be the hardest hit with as much as 15 centimetres of snow.

Communities between Timmins and North Bay were expected to see as much as 20 centimetres, while up to 15 centimetres was predicted for the St. Lawrence Valley. Snowfall warnings were in effect for Ottawa, Brockville and Cornwall.

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