First storm of season wallops Eastern Canada

The season's first storm has delayed flights, closed schools and sidelined drivers as the system moves from southern Ontario into the rest of Eastern Canada.
 
Environment Canada issued snowfall and freezing-rain warnings for much of southern Ontario Thursday as provincial police contended with several accidents on the province's roadways.
 
Fifteen centimetrs of snow fell on Huntsville, Ont. with more snow reported in the Kitchener region and freezing rain across the Greater Toronto Area.
 
Parts of southern Quebec are under a snowfall warning as Montreal, the Laurentians, Quebec City, the Saguenay and the Gaspé regions brace for between 15 and 30 centimetres of snow.

"A few regions will see the snow changing (to) rain on the passage of the warm front associated with this system and an area of ice pellets mixed with freezing rain will persist over the region of Montréal today," Environment Canada's website said Thursday.
 
A number of flights departing the Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport have been delayed or cancelled. Some schools have closed for the day in Quebec City where the storm is hitting the province the hardest.
 
Montreal officials unleashed more than 1,000 snow-removal and sand trucks that are currently criss-crossing the city.