Environment

Winter from Hell: Toronto Snowfall May Break a 70 Year Old Record

by Tina Kells | January 29, 2009 at 09:39 am

3750 views | 14 Recommendations | 8 comments

The Canadian province of Ontario has been hit with record breaking levels of snowfall this winter and there are no signs of it letting up any time soon. In fact, meteorologists are predicting that Toronto, Ontario's capital city, will break a 70 year old record for snowfall set in 1939.

Environment Canada's senior climatologist David Phillips said the GTA has already had about twice the amount of snow it normally sees.
Peter Noehammer with the city's Transportation Services told 680News that snow crews are bracing for a possible record breaking winter snowfall.

"We are outpacing the amount of snow accumulations with Toronto. Last winter, we got a number of snowfalls in February so that really pushed the record," said Noehammer.

As of this morning, the city received 137 centimetres of snow, which is just 57 centimetres shy of last year's total accumulation.

What this means is that the city is on pace to have the snowiest winter in 70 years and even beat the all-time record of just over 200 centimetres of snow since 1939.

Ontario-ites thought that the winter of 2007/2008, dubbed "the season from hell," had the worst weather in memory, but winter 2008/2009 is turning out to be much worse. Ice storms have ravaged the east coast of North America since December and Ontario has weathered more than its fair share of the storm.

While last year’s record-breaking snowfalls across York Region and southern Ontario garnered the winter of 2007/08 the notorious name tag, ‘the season from hell,’ statistics from Environment Canada reveal that the winter of 2008/09 could be freezing and snowing us into the record books yet again.

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Jordan Yerman

at 09:46 on January 29th, 2009

Well, back in the day, people believed that the innermost circle of Hell was cold.

(Measure for Measure, III.i by W. Shakespeare:

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbèd ice,
To be imprisoned in the viewless winds

[...] )

Blue Crush

at 10:27 on January 29th, 2009

Ahh ... but it had to get milder in order to snow, so I welcomed it. But not the shoveling!

We're halfway there, and he (Dave Phillips) predicts a "normal" February and March.

picturenarrative

at 10:59 on January 29th, 2009

Don't just stay home. -25 C could be fun!

picturenarrative has contributed a photo to this story.

Amy Judd

at 11:36 on January 29th, 2009

I just hate shoveling snow - however, I always wanted it to snow more in Van!

alfred ng

at 11:37 on January 29th, 2009

Canada is a northern country even I was not born in Canada but I LOVE snow. I love the four seaons in Toronto. People, learn to dress for the winter and go out take photos, watch the people try to drive as the snow coming down it is the best free show on earth..

Jordan Yerman

at 12:26 on January 29th, 2009

Watching Bay Street types slide around on the ice in their leather-soled shoes is... fun.

alfred ng

at 11:40 on January 29th, 2009

Winter from hell is heaven to me!

Saharrrr (not verified)

at 20:35 on January 31st, 2009

I realize I'm supposed to "learn to dress for the winter " and enjoy the show.. but I really can't. I dress in layers and layers, but it doesn't make my hour and a half of commute by bus from markham to york university any less painful...