Pre-winter storms move eastward across the country

TORONTO – The official start of winter may still be a week and half away, but The Great White North is already living up to its namesake.

Snow began falling in southern Ontario Sunday night and continued through the early morning with accumulations in some parts of the Greater Toronto Area expected to reach about 15 centimetres.

Morning commuters were warned to expect a slow, slushy ride in to work, while air travellers were being advised to call airports before heading out to check for flight delays and cancellations.

The storm system was expected to continue moving east through the day, laying down a snow blanket in eastern Ontario and Quebec before moving into Atlantic Canada where weather alerts were issued in all four provinces over the weekend.

Parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick could get up to 20 centimetres of snow before the end of today and snow was expected to begin falling on Newfoundland’s south coast tonight, then spread to the rest of the province by Tuesday morning.

British Columbia got a blast of winter over the weekend, with snow and unusually nippy temperatures, while across the Prairies it’s cold — deep freeze cold — with highs this week in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and also northern Ontario forecast to range from about minus 13 to a biting minus 25 degrees Celsius.