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Municipalities across the Prairies and Eastern Canada are bracing for large amounts of snow amid a polar vortex and wintry conditions that are also wreaking havoc in the United States.
In the Atlantic provinces, the system tracking across much of the U.S. is expected to bring snow, wind and blowing snow beginning Sunday night and continuing to Monday night before tapering off to flurries through Tuesday. Snowfall totals are expected to be in the range of 25 to 40 centimetres for Nova Scotia by the time the system pulls away on Tuesday.
Amounts will drop to the north, but a significant snowfall of 15 to 25 centimetres is also expected across southern New Brunswick, with the possibility of some higher totals near 30 centimetres along the Fundy coastline.
The Greater Toronto Area is expected to see the storm touch down at about 11 a.m. ET and continue throughout most of the day. It will reach a high of –8 C, but feel closer to –21 C.
This storm could drop up to 40 centimetres of snow by the time it’s done, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), with higher amounts possible in specific areas from lake enhancement.
Prairies continue to feel brunt of extreme weather
ECCC issued an orange warning for most of Saskatchewan, which means the weather is likely to cause widespread or significant damage.
The government agency reported that multiple towns have broken cold weather records.
Brad Vrolijk, a meteorologist with ECCC, stressed that in these conditions, “skin can freeze in under a couple minutes…. When you throw even a light wind on top of that, it gets very dangerous.”
Saskatoon has escalated its winter emergency response plan from now until Wednesday because of the cold snap.
The Arctic air hitting much of Canada this week is a whole new experience for some people. Overnight, it could feel as cold as –46 C in Saskatoon, with frostbite possible in just minutes, says Environment Canada.
Power outages in Quebec
The Canadian Red Cross has opened an emergency shelter in the city of Côte Saint-Luc — a residential suburb on the island of Montreal — after thousands of residents lost power during the cold snap on Saturday.
In an email to CBC News on Saturday night, Hydro-Québec said it was working to bring back power to customers but that some addresses may have to wait until Monday.
As of 10:30 a.m. ET Sunday, 3,727 of the 13,368 homes affected had their power restored, according to the City of Côte Saint-Luc.
According to Hydro-Québec, the outages began some time Saturday morning.
On its website, Hydro-Québec listed equipment failure as the cause of the outages in some sectors, while in other areas the cause was listed as unknown.
In Toronto, the city opened warming centres and has increased shelter spaces over the weekend, but advocates have said it’s still not enough to meet the growing demand of people experiencing homelessness.
Lorraine Lam, a crisis outreach worker, told CBC News about 300 beds are available but that thousands of people are known to live outside in the city.
“One of the biggest concerns is that there’s just insufficient spaces,” Lam told CBC News on Sunday morning.
She said she would be offering people on the street information about where they could warm up, any winter gear they may need, as well as gift cards to get warm beverages and public transit passes in case they need to get to warming centres.
Ice removal at N.L. power plant ‘successful’
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said on Sunday that ice removal efforts at the Bay d’Espoir power plant — the largest generating plant on the island — have been “very successful.
The operation involved a team of divers braving frigid water with air compressors to try and clear the ice.
Hydro announced on Friday that a buildup of frazil ice — a slushy mix of ice crystals suspended in water — had blocked the intake at the plant, forcing it to entirely shut down for the first time since 1967.
Power warnings remained in place on Sunday, with both N&L Hydro and Newfoundland Power continuing to ask customers to conserve power and prepare for the possibility of rotating outages.
B.C. spared from the deep freeze
An unseasonably mild winter is coaxing blossoms to bloom early in some Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods, as it experiences one of the warmest Januaries on record.
Climate scientist and former leader of the B.C. Green Party Andrew Weaver said that in Victoria, it’s not just cherry blossoms that are showing up early. All kinds of flowers are popping up in the provincial capital, from crocuses to daffodils.
“I’m just driving to find some flowers. They’re everywhere by the water here in Fairfield [a neighbourhood in Victoria]. They’re just everywhere,” said Weaver, a professor at the University of Victoria’s school of earth and ocean sciences.
ECCC data shows the average maximum temperature in Vancouver for the first 18 days of January was 8.3 C, peaking at 13.8 C last week, while the average minimum has been 4 C.
