After Windsor-Essex received 9.4 centimetres of snow on Monday, Environment Canada is forecasting another 10 to 15 centimetres throughout Wednesday.
UPDATE: 10 to 15 centimetres snow possible for Windsor-Essex throughout Wednesday, says Environment Canada
Dalson Chen, Windsor Star
A cyclist navigates a snow-covered roadway on McEwan Avenue in Windsor on Dec. 12, 2017.
UPDATE: As of 3 a.m. Wednesday, Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Windsor-Essex advising of higher than anticipated snowfall amounts.
Total snowfall throughout Wednesday is now expected to reach 10 to 15 centimetres, beginning late in the morning.
It’s hoped that the snow will ease towards midnight.
Motorists are urged to prepare for poor driving conditions.
Great news for fans of snowy, sub-zero weather: There’s more coming soon for Windsor and Essex County. For the rest of us saner folks — better bunker down this week.
Following the Alberta clipper that dumped 9.4 centimetres of snow on Windsor Airport on Monday, Environment Canada is forecasting another clipper system will result in more snowfall in the middle of the week, starting Wednesday afternoon.
The original amount predicted for Wednesday was five centimetres. But a special weather statement issued early Wednesday increased that estimate to 10 to 15 centimetres.
That’s on top of the 30 per cent chance of flurries on Thursday, and 60 per cent chance on Friday.
“It’s another system coming out of the prairies,” confirmed Geoff Coulson, senior meteorologist with Environment Canada.
“This one is taking a slightly different track. It’s mostly going to affect Southwestern Ontario — Windsor, Chatham-Kent, Sarnia … The one (on Monday) provided snow right across Southern Ontario. The next one on Wednesday is more restricted to the region.”
Windsor resident Brian Haig clears a sidewalk on Elliott Street on Dec. 12, 2017.
Throughout the week, thermometers will be staying below the freezing point. The air temperature was expected to plummet to -12 C on Tuesday night.
Even when the sun peeked out, the windchill made Tuesday’s daytime temperatures feel like -14 C.
On the plus side? Meteorologists forecast local temperatures will rise just above zero on Saturday and Sunday, turning our chance of flurries into a chance of rain.
“Normal high for this time of year should be 2 C,” Coulson said. “By the weekend, we do see temperatures bouncing back to more seasonable values.”
However, sometimes a rise in temperature is not a good thing. Coulson said Environment Canada forecasters will be keeping an eye out for a brief possibility of freezing rain over our area on Saturday.
Hey, at least it’s not 40 years ago: 1977 set the record for the coldest and snowiest Dec. 11 that Windsor-Essex has ever seen, with a frigid low of -19.7 C and 24 cm of snow on the ground.
All this weather-watching leads to a common question this time of year: Will we have a white Christmas?
“In Windsor, traditionally, the odds are not great for a white Christmas,” Coulson said. “But we are forecasting temperatures to be a little colder than normal in the days leading up to Dec. 25. Most of the snowfall we’ve seen in the last little while has been from these rapidly-moving systems coming out of the prairies. That looks like it’s going to continue.”
“All things considered, we do actually have a chance of a white Christmas for the Windsor area.”
A motorist begins the task of clearing snow off a vehicle in downtown Windsor on the morning of Dec. 12, 2017.
Sean Rousseau of Major League Lawn Inc. clears a sidewalk on Erie Street East and Marion Avenue on Dec. 11, 2017.
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