Hamilton, Halton and Brant area schools closed Thursday after heavy snowfall

After much of southern Ontario was hit with a winter storm Wednesday night, schools in the Hamilton, Brantford and Burlington areas are closed Thursday, while schools in Niagara remain open, though buses are cancelled.

Environment Canada continued its winter storm warning for Hamilton early Thursday morning. The weather agency said to expect "snow and risk of freezing rain ending early this morning" with snowfall up to four centimetres leading to poor visibility. 

The agency warns that the "snow could make travel difficult over some locations. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become icy and slippery. There may be a significant impact on rush hour traffic in urban areas."

McMaster University is closed Thursday as well. All scheduled classes, labs, studios and events — in-person and remote — are cancelled, it said in an email. All Mohawk College campuses are closed. In-person classes and on-campus events are cancelled. The college said on X that virtual classes and services will continue as scheduled.

GO transit said it has modified its service to accommodate for the weather. Many trains leaving West Harbour, for instance, will be making all stops to Union Station, arriving later than expected.

The city of Hamilton said Wednesday that some of its programming would be affected. Early swim classes at recreation centres were cancelled. It has posted some of the early impacts online.

Where are the snow plows? The city's Plow Tracking map shows where snow maintenance vehicles have been in the last two hours.

All Hamilton Public Library locations will open at 1 p.m. today, though the Greensville branch is closed. Bookmobile visits are cancelled. 

Officers "continue to respond to collisions and vehicles stuck in snow drifts across the GTA," the OPP said on social media early Thursday morning.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said, in an early morning post on X, "do yourself a favour and everybody else, stay home and let the system pass. "Once we get everything plowed and cleared and the snow is done" drivers will be in a "much better position to be out on the roads," he said.

On social media, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation warned of "hazardous" road conditions. "Significant winter storm should end today but not before getting a few more centimetres of snow. Extreme cold in the North, snow squalls in the South. Motorists should expect hazardous winter driving conditions and adjust travel plans accordingly," it said on X.

Some centres also announced closures early Thursday, including Compass Community Health, Niwasa Hamilton, De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre and morning classes at the Dundas Valley School of Art. Offices, such as the Immigrants Working Centre, also said they would be closed. Six Nations Polytechnic is closed.

The YMCA of Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford will be closed all day, as well as school aged childcare centres. EarlyOn locations in Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford are also closed today. The YMCA Beyond the Bell locations in Six Nations of the Grand River and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations are closed today as well. 

The YMCA announced that all employment, training and settlement offices are closed. The agency said all appointments will be virtual.