Canada readies for another blast of winter weather

by Amy Judd | December 23, 2008 at 10:46 am

1699 views | 12 Recommendations | 22 comments

Canada is getting ready for another blast of winter weather, just in time for a White Christmas in a few days.

It is expected to start snowing again across Canada tonight and continue into Christmas Eve.

However, crews in Nova Scotia are still trying to get power back to thousands of customers from the first storm two days ago, as power lines were knocked down. About 20,000 people in Yarmouth, Shelburne and the Eastern Passage are still struggling with no power today and more bad weather is expected to come. At the peak of the storm, about 100,000 people did not have power.

According to NSP's website, a total of 25,487 customers across the province were without power as of 10:30 a.m. local time.

Power crews have been working since Monday, when strong winds, some of hurricane-strength, lashed the Maritimes -- snapping trees in half and stripping the siding from homes.

Murphy said crews have been working a "17-seven" shift since the storm -- 17 hours of work followed by a mandatory seven hours of rest.

"They did take some down time in the middle of last night and they're back up and at it today," she told CTV Newsnet.

NSP is hoping to have power restored to all areas by Tuesday night. Murphy said the most damage was caused by trees falling on power lines.

"They're out there with chainsaws today, the winds are down, it's bright sunshine so they should make some good progress," she said.

"...They're just going to be out there today pulling the trees off power lines and putting the wires back up."

In Vancouver, about 10 to 20 centimetres is expected to fall, and the city is already experiencing transit problems this morning.
In the Greater Toronto Area, as a fourth storm is expected to fall tonight, and this could affect flights in and out of Pearson International Airport as travellers stuggle to get to their Christmas destination.

More than 50 flights that were scheduled to leave Calgary yesterday were delayed and 16 were cancelled, and the delays are expected to continue today.
As the snow continues to fall on Canadian cities, airports have had to close some runways, but they are hoping to clear as much of the backlog as they can today, before the storms come back tonight.
Both Air Canada and West-Jet have put on extra flights to deal with all the back-log, and while some cities are used to this kind of winter weather, cities such as Vancouver, are not.
RCMP are still warning however, that unless people have to travel by car, to stay home, or try and use tranist - that is of course, if it is running...

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Paschen

at 11:04 on December 23rd, 2008

This could not have started at worth time.

AlanJames2006

at 14:58 on December 23rd, 2008

Taken at Monarch Park Toronto

AlanJames2006 has contributed a photo to this story.

JENNYSKIM

at 15:09 on December 23rd, 2008

Could not go out for grocery shopping by that time.
Snow falling was looks like cats and dogs.
But I don't know why my vertical image changed to horizontal at here?

Bill Smith1

at 16:17 on December 23rd, 2008

Toronto one week before the first blast of winter.

Shot at the corner of Yonge and Dundas by Bill Smith.

Bill Smith1 has contributed a photo to this story.

knut08

at 16:21 on December 23rd, 2008

My photos were taken after yet another snow storm in Nova Scotia. Not quite as bad as the one which just passed over us (December 21/22), which knocked out the power for 10s of thousands of households. Merry Christmas to all and stay warm!

knut08 has contributed a photo to this story.

margot.trudell

at 16:48 on December 23rd, 2008

This photo was taken in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto in the evening after a heavy snow - the owners of this house had decorated their hedges with Christmas lights which got covered with snow, giving it a pretty glow.

margot.trudell has contributed a photo to this story.

nancybroden

at 16:50 on December 23rd, 2008

My husband is from Texas so he didn't grow up with snow. This was his first time shoveling the stuff and he was quite excited by it all!

SusanG2

at 17:18 on December 23rd, 2008

The first of a series of snowstorms hits Toronto.
Gusty winds and heavy blowing snow - December 19, 2008

Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada

SusanG2 has contributed a photo to this story.

shogox

at 17:23 on December 23rd, 2008

I was walking along Yonge and notice how bad the storm was getting.

shogox has contributed a photo to this story.

tremaine.lea

at 17:30 on December 23rd, 2008

Photo was taken December 12th during a storm that nearly brought Calgary to a standstill. Normally my commute is a whopping 15 minutes - I'd been in traffic for over 2 hours when I took this shot ;)

Environment Canada says this December Calgary has received more snow than it's seen since the early 1970's! My wife is from Dallas, and is Not Happy (tm) with our Canadian winters.

supermans wife

at 17:35 on December 23rd, 2008

I haven't seen a white Christmas since I was in elementary school, 1971. I prefer it on the mountains, but sometimes a bit down at sea level is welcomed. I have friends in every province, we have it easy here in Vancouver. It is nice that this was fluffy snow due to the cold temperatures, as opposed to the heavy cement like snow we usually have to contend with. It truly is a different driving experience in Vancouver due to the difference in snow.

supermans wife has contributed a photo to this story.

pbeens

at 18:12 on December 23rd, 2008

The first winter storm of 2008 in Toronto.

pbeens has contributed a photo to this story.

NotTheDuck

at 18:59 on December 23rd, 2008

Dawn - Pink Chick

at 19:05 on December 23rd, 2008

View from the ridge in Silver Springs in Calgary as we ran a cross country race. It was -23C (-9F) but more like -40C (also -40F) with the windchill and still some 71 runners between the ages of 7 and 70+ finished either a 3 or 7k event.

Dawn - Pink Chick has contributed a photo to this story.

chao.chhunhour

at 20:00 on December 23rd, 2008

just a cold and windy afternoon after a big storm the day before. no matter what it is, if it's exposed, snow got to it!

chao.chhunhour has contributed a photo to this story.

tycchan1

at 20:31 on December 23rd, 2008

This picture is taken outside my home in Markham, during the back to back storm.

tycchan1 has contributed a photo to this story.

jhejl

at 22:07 on December 23rd, 2008

Heavy snow hits downtown Vancouver (almost unrecognizable!)

This photo captured in Yaletown, on Pacific - near the intersection with Drake. The orientation of the camera is looking towards the intersection with Davie.

cheers,
-jim hejl

jhejl has contributed a photo to this story.