Snowy Start to the Weekend for Southern Ontario With Up to 5-10cm of Snow Late Friday Into Saturday
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December has arrived, and Mother Nature is swiftly ushering in winter across Southern Ontario. Earlier this week, we witnessed the first significant lake-effect event of the season, blanketing parts of the snowbelt region around Lake Huron and Georgian Bay with over 30cm of snow.
As we step into the first weekend of December, it is set to begin on a snowy note for much of Central and Eastern Ontario, courtesy of a system tracking across the region today into Saturday. Precipitation has already started in the southwest part of the province and is anticipated to persist throughout the evening and into Saturday morning.
For Southwestern Ontario and the Golden Horseshoe area, we anticipate predominantly rain persisting intermittently over the next 24 hours. However, we could see some wet flurries mixed in around parts of the GTA. Total rainfall accumulation is projected to range from 5 to 15mm.
The focus of the weather story shifts northward, especially across the higher elevations of the Dundalk Highlands into Central and Eastern Ontario. These areas have already seen some wet flurries this afternoon which is expected to intensify later in the day and overnight.
This snowfall won’t be excessively heavy, with more prolonged steady, light to moderate snowfall throughout the evening and overnight hours, stretching from Georgian Bay through Central Ontario into the Ottawa Valley. It will gradually subside just after sunrise and should conclude around the noon hour.
There's also a potential risk of freezing drizzle to the northwest of the GTA, encompassing Orangeville and Shelburne overnight. However, its impact is likely to be insignificant, and not every model supports this scenario.
The highest snowfall accumulation from this event is expected to be between 5 and 10cm by Saturday afternoon. This encompasses regions such as Orangeville, Barrie, Muskoka, Bancroft, Renfrew, and Pembroke. While most locations are likely to fall closer to the 5cm mark, a few localized areas could approach or even exceed 10cm.
Ottawa, Peterborough, Newmarket, Guelph, and Kincardine may experience a few centimetres of snow, while the rest of Southern Ontario anticipates less than 2cm, with wet flurries possible around the Lake Ontario shoreline into the Kitchener region.
