Northern Ontario: Winter Weather Hazards Outlook for Saturday, December 11, 2021

Forecast Discussion

A deepening low-pressure system out of Colorado will bring a blast of wintery weather to Northeastern Ontario on Saturday. The exact impacts will depend on your location with some areas seeing over 20cm of snowfall accumulation while others see several hours of freezing rain.

We will start to see the first bands associated with this system reach those near Lake Superior during the early morning just after midnight. It likely will start as some wet snow for those near the Georgian Bay shoreline and more sustained snowfall to the north. A thin band of freezing will develop later in the morning stretching from Sault Ste. Marie through Elliot Lake, Sudbury and into Temiskaming Shores. Freezing rain accretion ranging from 2-6mm is possible in this area before it switches over to rain later in the day. Areas around Georgian Bay will quickly transition over to rainfall.

Heavy snowfall will continue through Wawa, Kapuskasing, Chapleau, Timmins and Cochrane with accumulation ranging from 15-25cm by the end of Saturday. Blowing snow may also be an issue with wind gusts reaching 40-60km/h. Stronger gusts near 90-100km/h are possible along the Georgian Bay shoreline. All precipitation will come to an end late Saturday although some drizzle or flurries may continue into early Sunday morning.