Blast of Ontario snow brings weather warnings, signs of white Christmas

A blast of winter weather is set to sweep across Ontario, delivering snowfall and signs of a white Christmas.A snow-covered bridge rail over Highway 11 near Gravenhurst, Ont., is shown on Wednesday Dec. 4, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Drost

A white Christmas is forecasted for parts of Ontario as winter weather and snowfall sweeps across the province Monday.

Snow moving across Ontario is expected to accumulate from about London eastward to the Quebec border, said Environment Canada meteorologist Brad Rousseau.

"Whatever snow falls today looks like it should stick around for Christmas," he said. "A white Christmas looks to be almost a certainty."

Up to 20 centimetres is in the forecast across a swath of Ontario from Georgian Bay east toward Perth where the snowfall warnings are in effect.

The Greater Toronto Area is under a winter weather travel advisory and could see between five and 15 centimetres of snow by early Tuesday morning.

On one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season, Toronto Pearson International Airport urged travellers to check their flight status and take "plenty of extra time" to arrive at the airport.

The snow advanced on Ottawa Monday afternoon, and Environment Canada warned it could become heavy at times through the night with accumulations between 10 to 15 centimetres.

Drivers on Highway 400 and Highway 11, where some cars were stranded around Gravenhurst during a major storm earlier this month, may come up against poor visibility and hazardous road conditions, Rousseau said.

As it moves east, the snow was expected to taper off Monday night and into Tuesday.

The low-pressure system developed along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, in what forecasters call an Alberta Clipper.

The systems, Rousseau said, are generally characterized by smaller winter storms than low-pressure systems that develop out of Texas or Colorado, but they're generally fast-moving and a little drier.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2024.