Toronto - Crushed and mauled vehicles were removed from sections of highway 400 following a whiteout caused series of crashes on Sunday. As many at one hundred vehicles were involved in the pileups that began just after one pm local time.
The series of vehicle accidents occurred just north of Toronto, and were the result of a line of squalls that blew near the town of Cookston. Located about sixty-five kilometers north of Toronto, the storm brought total white out conditions and a huge mess and confusion. (more…)
Toronto - Toronto’s Emergency Services (EMS) suggests a few ways on keeping warm and to avoid getting Hypothermia and frostbite in the cold weather: (more…)
Environment Canada has issued a wind warning for Southern Ontario including Toronto and parts of the Greater Toronto Area.
Wind warning for:
Toronto
Southern Niagara Region
Southern Durham Region
Pickering
Oshawa
Niagara Falls
Welland
Goderich
Wind warning ended for:
St. Catharines
Grimsby
Northern Niagara Region
Vaughan
Richmond Hill
Markham
Newmarket
Georgina
Northern York Region
Northern Durham Region
Goderich
Huron County (more…)
Toronto - A general 15 centimetre snowfall is expected along the 401 corridor.
Snow developed over southern Ontario Monday night.
While snowfall amounts for most areas will be near 15 centimetres places near eastern Lake Ontario could see amounts up to 20 centimetres.
Brisk northeast or northerly winds will cause occasional blowing snow for many regions.
Snow will gradually taper off Tuesday afternoon over most of southern ontario. However, the improvement is not expected to reach eastern Ontario until Tuesday night.
Cold Arctic air will move into all regions Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Hamilton - A major winter storm from Texas is hitting the GTA.
The heaviest snow amounts are expected Sunday morning before tapering off into the evening hours. This will likely be the largest snowfall totals for Toronto in almost four years, with total accumulations likely ranging from 20 to 35 cm with higher amounts possible depending on where you live.
Blowing snow will severely limit visibility at times. Police report traffic on the major highways is slow and not recommended. (more…)
Toronto - The following are a list of school closures and school bus service cancellations due to poor weather conditions across the GTA:
School buses for York Region and York Region Catholic school boards have been cancelled due to icy conditions.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic and the Peel District school boards school buses have been cancelled in the town of Caledon and the county of Dufferin.
The Country Day School in King City has been cancelled due to bad weather and a power outage, school bus service also cancelled.
Durham District and Durham Catholic school boards have cancelled school bus service north of Highway 7 - … includes schools in Brock, Thorah, Uxbridge, Scugog and Brooklin - classes will be held
The Orangeville Christian School has cancelled classes for the day, no school bus service
Classes have been cancelled at the Holy Trinity School in Richmond Hill due to icy conditions
Classes at Willowdale Christian School in North York has been cancelled - no school bus service available
Holland Marsh Christian School will be closed for the day due to freezing rain
Tannenbaumchat Hebrew School - Kimel Centre branch in Vaughan will be closed for the day due to icy conditions - Wilmington branch in North York will be opened
The Montessori Country School in Nobleton is closed today
Toronto - A low pressure system over northwestern Pennsylvania will bring the first winter storm of the season today. Freezing rain mixed with ice pellets and snow is falling in a band of regions from London to Kitchener to Toronto to Cornwall. This mixed bag of precipitation will change over to snow heavy at times this morning over most regions.
Another 2 to 5 centimetres of snow is expected today through the Greater Toronto Area while 5 to 10 centimetres area expected through cottage country. Higher snow amounts are expected to fall over higher terrain. Regions close to the lake may see lesser amounts due to slightly higher temperatures. (more…)
Toronto - Environment Canada has posted a snowsquall warning for the snowbelt regions southeast of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. The warning is for tonight and tomorrow.
Today’s lake effect showers are expected to turn into flurries and then snowsqualls this evening. Local snowfall amounts of 15 centimetres every 12 hours are possible.
The squall warning covers places such as Orillia, Barrie, Collingwood, Dufferin County and London.
The Weather Network is forecasting squalls in Toronto overnight but only about a centimetre or so and that should melt quickly as it reaches the ground.
Jakarta (EON) - A powerful 8.2 earthquake jolted parts of Indonesia’s Java and Sumatra islands on Wednesday evening, killing at least three people and prompting a tsunami warning that was later withdrawn for Indonesia - but not for nearby nations.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, which measured the quake’s magnitude at 8.2 in the Richter scale, issued a tsunami watch to 27 Indian Ocean rim nations, including India and Sri Lanka, where it could take up to three hours to hit.
The governments of India and Sri Lanka also issued tsunami alerts after the quake, which the US Geological Survey also measured it at a magnitude of 8.2.
The quake struck off the southwest coast of Sumatra Island at about 6:10 pm (1110 GMT), shaking coastal regions there, the capital Jakarta on Java Island, and West Java’s Banten province, said Fauzi, an official at Jakarta’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.
The agency issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas on Sumatra and Java, which was called off around 8 p.m. because too much time had passed for a wave to hit, Fauzi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Reports from Bengkulu province, on Sumatra’s southwest coat, said panicky residents fled out of damaged buildings and into the streets, many running for higher ground in fear of tsunami waves.
One person killed in Bengkulu after being hit by falling debris from a house, the state-run Antara news agency reported. Two people in the west Sumatran town of Padang were killed by flying glass from a damaged two-story building, according to the detik.com news portal.
The tremblor and subsequent panic was a flashback to December 26, 2004, when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck nine Asian nations and killed 177,000 people alone in Indonesia’s Aceh province, which lies on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Budi Adiputro, chief of staff of the National Disaster Coordinating Agency, told dpa that initial reports from Bengkulu, where communications were disrupted, did not indicate major casualties but that authorities “were still monitoring.”
Budi Harsono, a police official in Bengkulu told the Jakarta-based Elshinta radio station that he saw a three-storey building collapse following the quake, which triggered panic among residents, in particular those living in nearby the beach areas. Many of them fled by motorcycle to higher ground in fear of a tsunami.
Budi Waluyo, another geophysics agency official in Jakarta, told dpa that he had received reports of damaged buildings, in particular in Bengkulu, following the latest quake, which hit on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The quake took place about 159 kilometres south-west of the South Sumatran province of Bengkulu and was about 10 kilometres beneath the seabed.
In Jakarta, the quake triggered panic among employees and residents in high-rise buildings, with at least two people reported having fainted, and countless more fleeing into the streets.
Indonesia is located along the Pacific volcanic belt known as the “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.
Tremors were also felt in Malaysia’s east coast, prompting mass evacuations from major corporate and residential buildings in Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department confirmed that tremors had hit several areas in the country’s east coast, but no casualties have been reported.
Thousands of apartment residents and hundreds of office workers staying back late to work after-hours were forced to evacuate their buildings.
“I suddenly saw the water in my indoor aquarium splash about wildly, and heard shouts and screams from neighbours,” said Aarolyn Yip, a resident at a 17-storey apartment in the capital city. “Once we reached the ground floor, we felt more tremors,” said Yip.
Last month, a powerful 7.5-magnitude quake struck off the northern coast of Java and was felt hundreds of miles away, but there were not damage or casualties because the tremblor struck too deep in the ocean.
Sydney (EON) - Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Sydney on Saturday fell short of setting themselves targets for reducing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming but agreed that cuts were needed and that both rich and poor nations must make them.
The 21 leaders, gathered for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Australia’s biggest city, also agreed on “specific APEC goals on energy intensity” that would translate into producers cutting the amount of energy they use producing goods and services.
The meeting also agreed that deforestation must be addressed to stop the planet heating up. (more…)