Winter may end up one of Toronto’s snowiest
Residents of Ontario would be right in thinking that so far this winter it has been a harsh one in terms of snowfall. As snow continues to accumulate this weekend in the Greater Toronto Area, winter 2007-8 edges ever closer to being one of Toronto’s snowiest on record.
Over the last six days the city has seen 50cm (20 inches) of snow fall, often at a rate faster than the Authorities could clear it. This prompted a number of complaints on Friday against the City Council, particularly from residents of the Central Old City area, who had been promised that their streets would be cleared by Thursday evening.
While Toronto saw 50cm of snow over 6 days, other nearby towns in Ontario have received similar amounts in just 24 hours. On Wednesday night, the town of Orillia had 40cm (16 inches) of snow. This broke the single-day February record previously set in 1889 although the town of Milton topped the snowfall chart with 50cm (20 inches).
With the snowfall of the last week, Toronto has recorded a total of 140cm (55 inches) for this winter which is already over the average winter snowfall. Toronto has also seen more snow this winter than the previous two winters combined. Throughout this winter eastern Canada has consistently been caught up between low pressure systems running to its south, meeting up with extremely cold air plunging down from the Arctic. This has brought frequent heavy snowfalls across the region.
With a continuation of the freezing temperatures and yet further snowfall forecast into next week, it seems likely that the City will get even closer to the second highest winter snowfall record of 176cm (69 inches) which was set back in 1951-52. However, the all time record of 207.4cm (82 inches) set in 1937-38, looks likely to remain intact.
