WINTER HAS ARRIVED Expect delays

Posted on 12/29/2015

After a December that has felt more like spring than winter, the first major snowstorm of the season has hit the Northeast. The storm system that spawned deadly tornadoes in Texas over the weekend and brought wind and snow to the central US, tracked across the Great Lakes area last night bringing ice, snow and freezing rain to southern Ontario, and up to 35 centimetres of snow to the northeast.

The system is blamed for numerous collisions, along with dozens of flight cancellations and delays at Toronto's Pearson airport. Environment Canada has issued winter storm warnings for parts of eastern Ontario this morning, and parts of southern Quebec could see 15 to 40 centimetres of snow today and tonight - possibly mixed with ice pellets. The Maritime provinces had their first real taste of winter Sunday as a storm dumped up to 18 centimetres of snow in some areas.

Some flights at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport were delayed or cancelled as a result. There’s a winter storm watch for western areas of Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick, where as much as 25 centimetres of snow could fall. The same conditions are expected in the US northeast. More than 2,800 flights across the US were cancelled Monday - more than half of them at Chicago's two main airports - and around 4,800 were delayed, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. A typical day sees about 150 cancellations and 4,000 delays.

At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in the tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area Saturday. Snow from New Mexico through the Midwest, plus flooding in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois, added to the succession of severe weather events across the US in the last week that led to about four dozen deaths. Winter has arrived.