Originally published on Feb. 8 2013 for Xinhua News Agency and affiliates.
TORONTO, Feb 8 (Xinhua) – A massive snowstorm walloping southern parts of Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, has left three dead and shut down numerous schools and businesses on Friday.
The storm, a combination of fast-moving winter storm from the Rocky Mountains, called the “Alberta Clipper”, mixed with a Texas low pressure system, intensified overnight and brought more than 30-centimetre of snow to the region by late afternoon, according to Environment Canada.
In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, 600 snowplows were dispatched to clear the heavy snow off the roads and sidewalks. Meanwhile, severe weather conditions grounded hundreds of flights from the Chicago to Quebec City route at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
Many flights to the northeastern U.S. were also cancelled. Local weather agencies said the snowy conditions could potentially bring a historic one-metre of snow along the stretch of New York and Boston area.
However, the snowfall is expected to ease up by late night Friday when the storm finally passes through eastern Ontario and toward the Atlantic provinces.
By Friday morning, the severe winter conditions resulted in three reported deaths in Ontario, with an 80-year-old woman, who collapsed in front of her house while shovelling snow in her driveway, being the first known casualty.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) reported two more fatalities on the province’s busiest highways with two major collisions that brought parts of the freeways to a grinding halt.
In total, the OPP reported over 300 vehicle collisions in the province by late afternoon.
According to transportation officials, most of the car crashes occurred on highway ramps and prevented snowplows from clearing the accumulated snow and slush, which worsened driving conditions.
The Ontario blizzards, however, will be dwarfed by a new storm moving into the Atlantic Provinces on Saturday. The incoming storm, expected to merge with another system from New England, could bring upwards of 40-centimetre snow to the Maritimes.