A blast of chilly, blustery, wet weather returned to the GTA Sunday, heralding a return to seasonal temperatures after some unusually warm weather last week.
Flurries and some icy road conditions are expected to greet GTA motorists through Monday evening, Environment Canada said in a special weather statement issued Sunday as the temperature dipped below zero to -1 C.
Snow and strong winds lashed pedestrians who were out and about on city streets Sunday, including thousands of spectators who turned out to catch the annual Santa Claus parade.
The weather didn’t disrupt the parade, but it did cause trouble elsewhere in the city. Downed wires and trees were reported across Toronto due to high winds.
Police were called to a condo building at Front and Bathurst Streets at around 8 p.m. after reports that scaffolding had fallen from the building due to high winds. No one was injured.
A massive tree was uprooted near Huron Street and Lowther Avenue in The Annex this morning and high winds also took down wires in the area of Bloor Street and Spadina Avenue.
No major hydro outages were reported in the Toronto area but Hydro One said as many as 14,000 customers were without power across its service area.
Snow squall warnings were also issued by Environment Canada for areas north of Toronto, including Barrie.
The national weather agency says areas named in the advisory could see snowfall amounts of 15 to 25 centimetres by Monday morning.
Strong winds and blowing snow could also result in poor driving conditions, Environment Canada warned.
It appears that the precipitation will stick around the GTA, with flurries and or rain predicted for much of the week ahead, along with lows ranging from -3 C to 3 C.
The city said Sunday evening that it was dispatching salting trucks to arterial roads around town as the heavy bout of flurries continued. About two centimetres are expected to accumulate locally, Environment Canada said.
