'Half a winter’s worth of snow': Ontario digs out after winter storm with thundersnow
CTV
Much of southern Ontario is digging out after a significant winter storm dropped up to 30 centimetres worth of snow in under 16 hours.
Much of southern Ontario is digging out after a significant winter storm dropped up to 30 centimetres worth of snow in under 16 hours.
“In the last 10 days, we have had almost a half a winter's worth of snow,” Dave Phillips, Senior Climatologist for Environment Canada, told CP24.
“Since Feb. 22 we've had about 50 centimeters of snow. We still haven't finished counting this one, but it really has been a blanket of snow in the last week and a half.”
The storm struck around 6 p.m. on Friday night, causing power outages as well as thunder and lightening across much of the province.
The lightshow—an unusual event called ‘thundersnow’—occurs when an air mass becomes so unstable that it turns violent. It is most common in the Great Lakes region, according to the Farmer’s Almanac, but tends to be rare.
Phillips added that milder temperatures with high moisture likely contributed to the weather event.
“It's a good old fashioned thunderstorm and you often, because of the atmospheric conditions, get more snow from that kind of event then just from a storm that might move through southern Ontario.”
