Reaction To Extreme Canadian Snow Storm

[@Pkeats817]

Looks like a regular winter day in the rest of Canada.

[@lamborghiniperlini1710]

yeah toronto one the warmest cities in canada lol, I would never consider their winter weather "extreme" by any means

[@cjseckinger8796]

🤣from Montreal.

[@stephaniepotter5999]

Just shovelled this much snow in the morning....Alberta

[@davej.4989]

This is what most Canadians would consider a light snow fall. Other cities in Canada receive much more snow than Toronto such as Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa. This type of snow fall is quite normal but when they hit Toronto there are never really ready for it.

[@watson956]

Well - some of us are ready for it, but it shocks a lot of folks who haven't lived here for decades like me 😎

[@shawnnerenberg661]

I'm in Edmonton, lately we've been in a drought, so we've had very little snow.

[@Butterflies-are-free]

I laughed at the first video! 🤣😂🤣 That’s not a “snowstorm”! That’s what we call a “light dusting” 😂🤣😂🤣

[@notevenlistening6072]

Here in Grande Prairie, there's quite a lot of snow ❄️

[@gkarenko9593]

Yeah, people joke about Toronto calling in the Army for a light snowfall. With the humidity there, it is a different, heavier type of snow than many other cities get, so there is that...

[@shawnf760]

In Newfoundland that's only flurries

[@Butterflies-are-free]

Right? Haha I laughed! That’s NOT a snowstorm! 🙂🤣🤣

[@TashOnTheRock]

%100 percent! If we shut down for weather like this we would have to hang a closed sign on the Island for the whole winter . 🤣

[@MickDickerson]

IKR! Cheers from NB.

[@TaylorCanada8]

That doesn't look like a particularly bad storm to me. I lived most of my life in a town about an hour NW of Toronto (Orangeville) in what is considered a snow belt. I drove an hour commute to work every day and often drove in big storms. I recently retired and moved to Spain and although I miss Canada, I don't miss the snow.

[@krista6322]

We Canadians can handle the snow but it’s the ice under it that is horrible. I’m in Winnipeg this is a normal snow fall. 💜🇨🇦

[@Butterflies-are-free]

Even in eastern BC this is NOT a snowstorm… it’s WINTER! 🤣

[@DiggerD-dy3de]

I'm from Alberta and have been dealing with this sort of weather for 70 years and driving in it for almost 55 of those. This is just another day in the city. In the rest of Canada, with the exceptions of both the east and west coasts, this would be considered a normal snow day. Only in Toronto would it be considered "extreme". On the east coast this is barely considered a snow storm, and in the lower mainland of BC, a good hard frost can shut everything down.

[@Russ069-j2v]

I live in Fort McMurray,Alberta,Canada🇨🇦That my buddy is just another typical day of living in the winter months 😂😂 take care,✌️😊

[@joannebonin5757]

That snow is nothing compared to Nova Scotia snowstorms lol

[@nanciecianfrini9168]

This is normal even for Toronto. Its not in a snowbelt like Fort Erie Niagara or London, Barrie...on and on..suffice to say this is a regular winter day.

[@niewissen9912]

I'm from NB and I agree with your comment. We get them bad too but you guys get the brunt usually befor us

[@joenerad3328]

When I was living in New Brunswick we had a year with over 500 cm of snow in one winter. I think there were 3 storms of over 50 cm

[@vernonmcphee6746]

@@joenerad3328 Sounds like the winter of 2015. I was living just inside NS and we got walloped from mid January on. We got 3 blizzards in 1 week and I was only 1/2 way through digging out from the second 1 when the third 1 hit. (I was living in an old farmhouse with a driveway/lane over 200' long.) Shovelling snow off the step at the back door I could barely throw the snow high enough to clear the accumulation. I didn't bother to dig a path through the snow drift for the oilman. I just cut steps up 1 side of the drift and down the other. I still had a small snow drift in a corner of the garden on June 1st.

[@lamborghiniperlini1710]

@@nanciecianfrini9168 toronto barely even gets snow wym lol

[@jBownz]

I live in Ottawa.. this is a normal snowy winter day. It's not uncommon to be walking in shin-deep snow before it's cleared. Most cities that get regular snowfall have the infrastructure to clear the streets and sidewalks pretty quickly (overnight). Toronto is just larger so takes a lot longer to clear (and Torontonians just like to whine... a lot).

[@RedKytten]

I am from Alberta (Edmonton). I remember once as a kid after a day that school was closed, I remember that the weatherman at the time said "Well, we are calling it -55, but we think it is colder than that. That is as low as the stations thermometer goes though." I also recall windrows that were over 2 meters tall. You couldn't cross the streets in many places because you just couldn't get over them

[@BarbNordman]

If it looks like this in the middle of a city it is 10 times worse on the highways. My sister was stuck in a car in a ditch overnight in a blizzard, had enough gas to turn on the heat intermittently but very cold. When the blizzard stopped they could see they were not that far from a neighbouring farm but not wise to leave the car when you can’t see anything.

[@lookingthroughice7843]

Your sister is stupid, always keep your car fuel topped up in the winter, and if she was in a ditch the bitch was driving to fast for the conditions.

[@freddiegillespie_05]

Snowstorms are just part of life in Montreal. You want to look at the Ice Storm of 1998 for something a bit more extreme for us. The other thing to consider is that temperatures have to be pretty mild (in theory anyway) for it to snow. Weather seems to exist to make liars out of all of us, but when temperatures are really cold, it doesn't normally snow. You have to have humidity and mild-to-cold temperatures for it to snow. One to four degrees Celsius is the sweet spot for snow.

[@MaryHemmings]

…. Montreal, March 1971!

[@daniellestolys6951]

Ontario Jan/Feb 1977...my mom said the snow was so deep the cars were buried in the drifts they had to go around on snowmobiles to flags on them so the plows didn't hit them

[@DeborahHamilton-q1w]

@@MaryHemmings I don't recall it being March, and I don't recall it being 71, although it may have been. I know we had a second dog, which I thought we got in 72, but I'm likely wrong. What I do remember is driving down Sources Road in Dorval, and barely being able to see the top of the hydro poles, the snow was piled so high. It was like driving through a tunnel with an open top!

[@roonboo96]

I believe it was the ‘70/‘71 winter that was bad in the Ottawa/Montreal area (looked it up: 444.6cm fell in Ottawa). Every year for some reason, the media likes to reprint the pictures of people trying to dig out from inside their houses with the snow up above the level of the door and the city of Ottawa’s sign that the snow was free for anyone to take. We used to get pretty crazy snowfalls in winter, but it has become so mild lately. In that same winter, Montreal got over 380cm, according the stats online. I do believe last year (the winter that wasn’t) Ottawa got only about 94cm of snow where we usually get over 200cm. For the record, here in Ottawa we almost double the amount of snow annually compared to Toronto. We aren’t the most snowy place in Canada and I’ll admit I like it that way!

[@richardking3966]

I agree, it certainly doesn't look like a big deal! Anyone who has lived here for any length of time (which is to say one winter or more) will have experienced much heavier snowfalls. As for driving, it's great fun as long as you've got a good set of snow tires and a full tank of gas! It's my favourite time of year. It's true that such a snowfall would close many cities around the world, particularly in Britain. Here, you MIGHT be 10-15 minutes late for work.

[@Butterflies-are-free]

Not at ALL, right? Compared to what a TRUE Canadian snowstorm looks like! Haha

[@flowerlover73]

I'm in Ottawa & we laugh at Torontonians in a snowstorm. It doesn't take much for them to be in trouble. Our snow plows don't go out until it's a minimum of 7cm. Having said that, snow in Toronto is bad, but mostly because they can't prepare for it. Imagine coming out to your car & not being see it because it's completely covered! The maritimes really get walloped in winter!!

[@peterzimmer9549]

Ottawa has nowhere near the amount of streets or the population of Toronto. Ottawa could never handle six million people going to and from work.

[@Band-lz5gb]

We also have to move five million people around, compared to your 1000...lol

[@RBB52]

Seriously..."The Maritimes get walloped in winter!!" well I guess it can happen but the last winter I spent in Halifax it snowed only once and the snow was gone in less than 24 hours.

[@peterzimmer9549]

@@RBB52 I think we’ll all agree to give the Newfoundland and the Maritimes bragging rights to outlandish winter storms. 🥶

[@cathyrivas6496]

Lived in Toronto for many many yrs. This is a normal snow fall. It doesn't snow like this every day but it is a typical snowfall that comes several times over the winter. I now live in Saskatchewan and have been here 10 yrs. Although they get lots of snow, they do not get as much snow as Southern Ontario. Southern Ontario gets lake effect snow which the western provinces don't get. When the wind blows west to east or east to west, lots of moisture is picked up over the long length of the great lakes and snow falls can be very dramatic. The Niagara area, Ft. Erie and Buffalo NY are quite often hit hard (see the storm of '77).

[@Ottawajames]

Toronto being one of the most southernmost cities in the country also one of the largest in the country tends not to have terrible Winters. The temperatures aren't as cold as they are in Edmonton for example or other places in the country, furthermore there is a microclimate effect that occurs in big cities because the concrete absorbs the warmth from the Sun and actually causes large cities to be a couple of degrees warmer than the surrounding areas.

[@Mohamjip-x4h]

This isn't considered a very heavy snow, in Canada. Canadians who drive are usually not too intimidated by the weather. The first snowfall of the year though, people have to be retrained on how to drive as there are a few fender-benders while people get used to a change in driving.

[@ryans413]

I rock my all season tires right through winter makes me a better driver because I have to be. Brake light accelerate slower but it’s manageable. Everyone rushes to get winter tires and then they still drive like idiots in the winter because they think winter tires solves everything.

[@ricandes]

I live in St.Albert, Alberta which is joined to Edmonton. This looks like a light snow in Canada. I have experienced snow so bad that the company I work for shut down production and sent everyone home. Some cars in our parking lot were completely buried with snow. We all had to work together just to get out of our parking lot. West Edmonton Mall actually shut down for that day.

[@Taeolas]

One video you might want to look up is how Toronto plows the highways during snow storms. Toronto has the 401, the busiest highway in North America. Around the city it is 10 lanes wide in each direction. Keeping those lanes clear in a storm is a priority and very challenging, since you can't use a single plow. Instead they developed a technique called "Echelon plowing" That is when they have multiple (4-5) BIG plows going in formation one following the other staggered across the lanes. They basically clear the entire highway all at once.

[@evelynleblanc1002]

In 2008 in Quebec City we had more tham 5 meters of snow during the winter. We broke our record that year.

[@MaryHemmings]

Ow

[@e.woodwitch2925]

I have lived in many places in Canada both east and west. The prairies have the extreme temperatures and horrible wind chills. but it is dry cold .There are also Chinooks that happen occasionally from Calgary to Moose Jaw. That causes melting and then when that freezes the roads are like driving on skating rinks. While the east has wet cold so it feels cold at milder temperatures. and they get more snow usually, lots of ice too. Toronto get a wicked cold wind off Lake Ontario that feels like it just cuts to the bone. The Maritimes get a ton of snow and bad storms while BC is the nicest province to spend winter in as it is the mildest and shortest there. It is our longest season too for most of the rest . So if you don't like winter Canada is not the best place for you.

[@PaulS.67]

This is actually at the northern end of the city (in North York)... about 15km north of downtown Toronto (Yonge and Dundas).

[@kathrynmcglynn3646]

This is a regular snow fall driving conditions. Canadians are largely quite adept at winter driving conditions.

[@Taeolas]

As others have pointed out, that's not a major snowstorm by our standards; even Toronto standards. Looked like it was fairly warm, probably only around -5C or so, but the snow wasn't that heavy (but may have had some freezing rain elements too which makes things worse). Real major storms, you would not be seeing the buildings across the street or the traffic ahead. That said, those types of snow storms can be the best. I went to University in Waterloo, just down the road from Toronto, and one of my fondest memories was leaving the Computer Lab late one night in early December, and it had been snowing a bit. Walking home in that sort of weather is surreal and very beautiful; the streetlights have a glow about them, the city sounds are muted, and it's bright from light reflecting on the newly fallen snow and all you really hear is your breathing and the crunch of the snow.

[@karenseeley6174]

The area that is being shown is in North York, a kind of suburb of Toronto. Because it is the suburbs, the roads are wider and there is more space to maneuver. The problem with downtown Toronto is that there isn't a lot of room, and there is nowhere to put all the snow when you plow it. Having a lot of snow in a city has its own special problems.

[@watson956]

Agreed - it's Yonge Street in North York. (added) 7:23 OK - there you go - Empress Ave.

[@jimsanderson4180]

Here in Vancouver we have a fair number of winters where we get no snow or the rain washes the snow away in less than 24 hours. Usually, a temperature of -5 or -10 is crazy cold. A bigger issue that I found when I was living in other countries, such as New Zealand and Japan, is the quality of housing. Neither of those countries insulate their houses nor do they have central heating. Even if it does get down to a very low temperature in Canada it’s not such a big deal because the housing is of such good quality.

[@watson956]

When winter weather is on its way, city- and provincial-owned trucks spread brine on the roads to melt the initial snowfall, and plows and salt-spreaders go out to help control the snow. But there are times when they can't keep up. Smaller city streets are much harder to plow, of course. Regardless, your vehicle *has* to have winter tires on to get through the conditions. That red car that was stuck clearly hadn't changed their tires, or learned how to drive in the snow!!

[@mspicer3262]

Extreme weather... yeah, I was working as a limousine dispatcher during "Snowmaggedon" back in 2010. We got over a metre of snow in the time I was working, and my relief couldn't get to the office. So I worked for him overnight, and another two hours until the day staff were able to make it into the office. I worked 18 hours that day. I lived walking-distance away, but walking in 1.5 metre drifts. And I've never been stuck. I carried a lot of stuff to make sure I could get myself out of almost anything. A couple of pieces of carpet, some short lengths of 2x4, a bag of kitty-litter, and a spade. I would help people get out of bad-spots where possible too.

[@michaeldowson6988]

I remember one really bad storm in Eastern Ontario when I was kid 60 years ago. It started snowing on Thursday; no school the next day; didn't stop snowing 'til late Saturday. The roads were still blocked so no school still on Monday. There were snowdrifts right up to the roof eaves on some buildings. Had to exit by the rear door, and shovel a route to the front of our house to clear the front door for use.

[@ElizabethR-w4u]

I've grown up in Toronto and this is a pretty average snowy day. When I was a kid in the 1970s, there was a lot more snow. In the 1980's it was so warm, almost every ski trip the school planned got canceled. The late 90s and early 2000s were pretty snowy, but now the snow has backed off again. When temps hover around the freezing point, but the ground and roads are much colder, that's when we get black ice.

[@randymackenzie103]

An interesting fact about the salt is it stops melting snow at anything below -20 C, in the colder cities gravel is used and then picked up in the spring. And yes we have some HUGE graters.

[@echobeefpv8530]

In Winnipeg, this would be considered a small storm. Toronto has no idea compared to the prairies on how to deal with winter. I've driven to work in this type of weather, many times. You get used to it.The worst I've seen in Winnipeg was in 86, we had so much snow, the only way around was snowmobile or snowplow. The snow was up to the second story windows at my friends place, the front door was buried. Had to leave out the second story window to go home.

[@SPierre-dm4wo]

As a kid on the prairies, I took the bus to school in the nearest town, six or seven miles away. Along with the usual emergency contacts that every student had, the rural kids all had to have a designated storm billet as well so we had somewhere to spend the night if the weather got too bad over the day for the buses to get us home. Our doctor neighbour often commuted to the hospital by skidoo because it was faster and more reliable than the car in winter. If your kid got sick with something like whooping cough during the cold season, having a doctor close by who also had a way to get them to the ER if the roads were closed meant they could stay home instead of moving in with friends in town in case their condition got worse during bad weather.

[@sandra4395]

Torontonian here... This is downtown/midtown along Yonge Street... Once the snow stops it will melt pretty quick... There are malls underneath the city streets and a PATH leading for many kms underground - this heat helps the snow melt quickly. This snowstorm will not slow down any of us city dwellers. Heavy rain cripples this city more than snow will.

[@WendyLorenc]

I grew up in a hamlet that was 45 miles from the closest city. There were times when I was a child that my mom drove through storms where we could barely see the hood ornament on her car. She was once storm-stayed at an elderly couple's house for 5 days because of a bad storm. Every time she even mentioned she might go, they insisted she stay. When she got home, there were snow drifts up to the eaves of her house. It was not at all unusual for my grandparents to have snow drifts up to the top of their clothesline posts on their farm.

[@real_lostinthefogofwar]

Toronto is in the great lakes snow belt (lake effect snow), upper New York state gets it even worse, Buffalo is particularly bad until Lake Erie freezes over.

[@elvishemeon389]

That last part looks like it's out in rural area. Night driving is touchy. Usually we'll take the temperature outside into account and sometimes check out the road with our boots to check for freezing. The worst temps are from 0 to -2 celcius. Those are freezing rain temps, that would be trouble. Toronto is on the leeward side of Lake Ontario. The city center tends to get a lot of moisture but not larger snowfalls. When it does snow a lot Torontonians panic .... lol . Rest of us find it a breeze. I once drove from Ottawa to Montreal , 200km drive, usually a 2 hr drive. I once hit a storm and it took 6 hrs to do the drive. Couldn't see a hand in front of you. Drive slow, take your time, keep a lot of distance from other vehicles and if possible , stay behind a tractor trailer, they plow through anything ... lol

[@watson956]

I have more to add, after this past weekend. I live in Ontario, mid-way between Toronto and Barrie (I'll let you look that up on a map). We got very little snow, but 35 kms or so got quite a bit, and about 90 kms north of here they had to close the roads because lake-effect snow dropped up to a metre of the white stuff. Just reinforces that in winter, we have to be prepared for all kinds of conditions!

[@EmmaBadOne]

That Safeway Tours bus used to take us from Toronto to Niagara falls and back for $5 before the pandemic..

[@MaryHemmings]

Driving up Mountain St, Montreal. We owned an old fashioned Volkswagen (engine in the back). Left everyone else behind in a brutal snowstorm (1970’s).

[@ljessel6612]

Just a note on good storms - A transport truck drove off the road because it was following a vans tail lights which went off the road first - All you could see at the time was the tail lights.

[@Imfluffyowl]

This is a light snowy day to most of us. Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia in particular) was hit hard last winter where we had a freak snowstorm where we got 5 FEET of snow over 3 straight days. We were put into a state of emergency in my community because we had drifts 8 feet high and we were stuck in our homes for 5 days before we could get plowed out. There was a lot of coverage on it. Check it out.

[@donjames7971]

Parts are upper Yonge St. above Shepherd Ave .. . The night-time speed 60kph + approx. 40mph .. !

[@HelenC-k3y]

I'm from Toronto and this is a very mild snow day. Unless the snow is piled high and people are climbing hills of snow to get into the bus, it's not too bad. We just have drivers not used to snow and muck things up.

[@Undercoverbooks]

I agree with others' comments -- this isn't a heavy snowfall. I live just outside Toronto and we've had up to 4' of snow in one day. There are big salt trucks with snow plows, but it sometimes takes a while to reach all parts of the city. I've found people are always happy to help their neighbours dig out, and no one worries much about being late to work or staying home all together.

[@andykooistra]

Actually this is not a heavy snowfall. Toronto gets less snow than most parts of Canada except lower BC. Most cities including Toronto, actually load up the snow and truck it away from the downtown areas.

[@fayesmith3846]

Mert, you should take a look back in Nova Scotia for the hurricane Juan that went through here in September 2003. Just 4 months later in February 2004 we had a storm that dropped 90 cm of snow in and around Halifax. It was called “white” Juan. Everything was shut down for over a week.

[@randywatts6969]

Severe wind chills are what you must be prepared for sometimes, -50c windchill is extreme, and dangerous.

[@artemia79]

It's November and we've already got twice that amount here in Saskatchewan lol. Out here, it isn't melting anytime soon either 😂 Toronto is used to bit milder temperatures being right next to a great lake, but they can still get pummeled once in a while. Vancouver is the same, I'd say even milder. They get hit with a good storm and then it's back to rain.

[@heyitstay24]

The winters hit differently depending on where you live; I live outside of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley where I’d say we get probably the lightest amount of snow (1-5 feet depending on the time of year and the winter) in comparison to other cities and/or provinces where you drop to -50 degrees Celsius or lower. But we have so much rain that when it snows, it immediately becomes ice with the freezing temperatures. That’s the worst part for us 😂 but I’ve seen worse than this even where I live - I had friends stuck in a car for 14 hours trying to get home from work. You should look up news and videos from the floods in 2021 in Abbotsford and Chilliwack (British Columbia, Canada). The military had to come in and help us; my husband was stuck in another city for two weeks and I was stuck in the town we were living in at the time because there was no way to leave.

[@robertpearson8798]

We get our occasional storms in Southern Ontario but in Montreal they just call this a Tuesday. I live about an hour from Buffalo and there are times when they’re getting snow measured in feet while we have sunshine and bare streets.

[@timcarder2170]

Oh, that wasn't bad...snow storms can get much, much, worse. I've seen it so bad you couldn't see across a regular street, let alone a multi lane like shown in rhis vid.

[@robdas1]

the streets are like that everyday here in edmonton. from december till february. most people have a shovel in the car trunk and an extension cord for the engine block heater. when its minus fifty you have to plug in your car all night or the engine block freezes solid and it wont start in the morning when you have to go to work. driving safely in deep snow is a skill you're forced to learn. getting a car stuck in the snow and having to dig yourself out a couple of times teaches you a lesson you won't soon forget

[@canadianmike626]

Here in Alberta, bud, we currently have 67cm of snow. It all came over 2 days. This maybe Toronto but here this storm is just another day. We have a ton of Asian restaurants. Canadians love Asian foods. There are Asian areas in larger cities but Asian restaurants are everywhere. I mean absolutely everywhere, and we love it.

[@misspelledgod4003]

Check out east coast snow storms. Alternately, as a kid at my grandparent's place in Chicoutimi, Quebec, we had to count driveways to find their house.

[@DeborahHamilton-q1w]

There's a funny thing about the Toronto area. Toronto itself, while prone to lake-effect snow, rarely gets buried. Drive as little as an hour east, west or north, and there's a heck of a lot more snow. Head towards Niagara (which is more southerly), and it's usually even milder than Toronto. Freezing rain is often more of a problem than the snow. Snow tires? They made them for a reason!

[@pillylamb]

Picture it - driving through a notorious mountain pass in northern British Columbia between Christmas and New Year's Day. It's completely black outside and it's snowing so hard that you can only see as far as the nearest giant snowflake in the headlights. It is a void to the sides and in the rear view. I am alone and am not entirely sure where the road is - I see no lines and the time of year means the highway is almost deserted - no tracks to follow. I try to stay on the middle part of the flat surface in front of me. I want to get through this as quickly as possible but I can only inch along, following the high-vis signs directing me around curves in the road (and there are many curves and swerves). I start to feel a rising claustrophobia, and the refrain "I have to get out of here, I have to get out of here" becomes more intense as the black void engulfing me feels like it's pressing in on me. It takes gargantuan will to begin to change the refrain to "the only way out is to keep going, the only way out is to keep going..." It's like a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel when, after what seems like days, I start to see a glow from the village on the other side of the pass. My god, the longest drive of my life!

[@Jessicab-u7c]

As a montrealer I totally understand your cozy vibe.

[@Sid-gu5qk]

Directly east of the great lakes there are snow belts where huge amounts of snow can fall when Toronto is getting a snow event like this.

[@0chuklz0]

When you said that looked to be a little small for a snowplow, you were not wrong. That was likely just for the sidewalks, and if you look closer at the back, there was a bin that would have had a mix of salt and sand to be spread around behind it as it plowed. The sand/salt mix would be wasted if the temp was too cold as it would just get covered by fresh snowfall and the salt wouldn't melt anything. Toronto generally has easier winters that most cities here, but they can get hammered on a bad day too. Yes to your comment about winter tires, pretty much every car would have had something on by then. In that kind of snow, it is incredibly dangerous to be still using all seasons.

[@SurleyBlaine]

In Winnipeg I've had to shovel 6 feet in front of the car, pull forward, repeat to get out of parking lots. Because any further the snow would just blow back in. On the highway you can't see the car tail lights in front of you 15 feet away for some of the "fun" ones.

[@michaeljamesstewart1000]

That was a weekday and very mild storm for Toronto. By the next day, most of the downtown streets and sidewalks would have been cleared. The night drive looked worse than it was because of the snow effect appearing that it was snowing parallel and at great speed when it really wasn't. Chimo

[@christinec1928]

That's not a bad snow storm but it doesn't take much in Toronto to make a mess of traffic. They've had far worse with lots more snow. That is far from a massive snow storm, even for Toronto. BTW, asking a Canadian if they've ever experienced a snow storm is like asking someone in the UK if they've ever experienced rain.

[@AuthorLaurieAnnSmith]

I'm in Alberta and the winters can be extreme!!

[@moon4music]

That is a bad storm for Toronto, but they get way less storms that we do where I live. The small city I live in about an hour & a half north of Toronto (Orillia) looks like this and worse than this most of the winter. We complain that this town doesn't keep up with snow removal very well. We've seen many worse snowfalls than this. The worst drive for me was about 10 years ago, on a rural road during the day. It was a very heavy snowfall, a wet one, so the snow and ice built up on my windshield wipers so fast and so thick that they couldn't even do their job of cleaning the windshield. I know there were other cars driving too but I couldn't see them or the road. I had to pull over, clear off my windshield but within moments, the snow quickly built up on my windshield and every other window on the car. Once I got to my small community on this rural road, I had to try and get to my daughter's house to wait out the storm. That was the scariest drive for me in all my 60 years. I also don't mind walking in snowfalls, especially at night when it's quiet and still.

[@johnbakema2869]

In Canada you embrace and enjoy the snow and cold. As kids we would put on 3 layers of clothes and play outside in minus 19 Fahrenheit, and yes in the sixties we weren't metric yet.

[@Microplancakes]

Once or twice a winter we’ll get a snow storm like this!! I neither drive or have a car so I find them quite exciting!! When I did drive, though, it was horrible driving in snow and ice!! Black ice is the worst as you can’t see it and it’s always a surprise!!!

[@mass4552]

This is an overnight dusting in most parts of Canada.

[@Jbissful]

Where I live in Northern Ontario, we’ll get this about 10 times a year. It’s unpleasant but manageable. School buses will be cancelled but schools remain open for parents to drop of and pick up their kids. Businesses remain open but many people do stay home. The worst driving conditions are snow like this at night on an un-lit highway. You can’t make out what the road is and you can’t see ten feet in front of you. I’ve done it before but won’t ever do it again.

[@maddogtradesman5944]

A lot of people in Canada are not prepared for the first major snow fall, this mild and it is late in the season. We have been lucky the last few years for mild winters. You need a really good set of tires and skills to use

[@gregkral4467]

Had a storm in Calgary 98 that overnight, snow everywhere was up to knees. Still walked to college though, had to dig a path to car through about 5 foot drift surrounding…. Made a chute to speed uphill and slide into spot, pick axe and mattock to carve path to wheel ruts.. school was closed that day though…. So helped dig and push others out on way home. Everybody should have cross country skis. I figure just waxed mine and thinking of getting some groceries later with my backpack.

[@robertsmith4681]

I remember this particular storm making the news and the whole situation being sort of ridiculed in ROC, Toronto is notorious for shutting everything down and calling the military every time they get more than a few centimeters of snow.

[@TraceyVerner]

I remember them calling in the military to shovel snow. 😅😅😅 It still makes this northern gal laugh. God bless them!

[@airborne63]

That happened ONCE, and it was several METRES of snow.....but anyway......

[@karenseeley6174]

There is always a high volume of traffic and not a lot of space in Toronto, so it isn't like a plow can just come in and clear out the snow.

[@robertsmith4681]

@@karenseeley6174 they do it in Montreal without problems ....

[@TraceyVerner]

@@karenseeley6174 poor city planning, then? I mean, it IS Canada . Snow is a given

[@laurabailey2092]

I live in BC next to Alberta and we got slow snow over 5 days and 30cm later

[@rebeccamcguire2798]

i love it guelph and honestly ontario is a province that doesn’t get the worst of the snow my family out in alberta can’t even open there doors some times 😅

[@jeffwotherspoon3867]

Yeah the biggest problem in cities like Toronto is the lack of places to put the snow, but as someone who lived thru the blizzard of 77 and lived in one of the hardest hit areas, this is nothing, there are many pictures on line of it and a book written about it called White Death

[@Feistygirl2024]

I'm sorry but I giggled watching this video. I live right in the middle of what is called the snow belt. Lake effect snow comes off the lake and bay right into my area. This weekend we are forecasted to get 50-100 cm. Toronto has no idea what winter is lol

[@angec6983]

You might enjoy learning about “Snowmageddon” in Newfoundland 2020. Newfoundlanders are particularly good in a crisis. I can recommend these two videos, both on CNC News NL channel: Snowmageddon: A musical tribute from Sean Panting An ode to the Newfoundland storm: Mark Critch And on Global News: The aftermath of the NL winter storm; more snow hits Atlantic Canada

[@nanciecianfrini9168]

This is a regular snowfall. It gets worse than this in most Canadian cities

[@Butterflies-are-free]

Even where I live in eastern BC…..this is just a very normal winter day

[@ZenWithKen]

We just had half a meter fall in 24 hours this weekend. Not a bad storm in comparison to some we've had, but it slowed things down for the day.

[@fellknight]

Few things... Toronto rarely gets bad storms. Like this maybe once every 5 years or so. Most of our other cities (except in BC) will get this type of thing a handful of times a year. A lot of people think that there is more snow in the north, but this is not true. Below a certain temperature, it is very difficult for the clouds to produce snowflakes. I find that most snow happens between around 2C and -7C As for driving, it's really not that bad. The tires, yes, but also we have trucks salting or sanding the roads regularly. Black ice is also only a thing right around freezing (usually like exactly at -1C). So, while I'll slow down a little bit in a storm, if the roads are largely plowed and the visibility is good, it's not much worse than driving during a rain shower, and sometimes better, because a heavy rain shower can cause hydroplaning fairly easily.

[@trevorgibson1190]

This footage is an area in Toronto in the north end called North York just north of the busy 401 hwy .

[@janyshendrickson3833]

I lived for about 15 years, up north of Toronto in Barrie on Lake Simcoe. A friend of mine from Seattle, Washington said to me when I moved to Barrie, "why would you want to live somewhere that has winter/snow 8 months of the year?!?" I laughed at him but the joke was on me. The lake-effect snow that hits Barrie is made all the worse by the high winds the area gets. Just brutal winter weather driving conditions.

[@sandram6828]

Now the blizzard of 77 sure was a nasty storm. With minus 45 C temps and the snow was high as the stop signs.

[@PaulHawkins-tn1cf]

St.johns N.L get big snow storms. January 17th 2020 was record snowfall 80 cm plus in 24 hrs. When you can't see your car in the driveway then it's a big snowstorm. This video is in Toronto which is a lot for them. You should carry a shovel in your car in winter just in case you get stuck. A hockey stick not going to help. As Red Green would say keep your stick on the ice lol.

[@AnikRichard]

I'm sure it was a bad day for Toronto, because Toronto is used to mild winter. But, as per many of the comments here, for most part of Canada, this would be described as a snow day,. Where I grew up, on the coast along the St-Lawrence river in Northern/Eastern Quebec, an "Extreme Canadian Snow Storm" is when the driver needs to open his/her door regularly to check if still on the road or heading for a ditch (re: a whiteout - no visibility due to snow & wind).

[@nancyleo3987]

It looks like Spadina Ave. It is a heavily populated Chinese area in the city. I no longer even leave the house if it's snowing. The supermarket is in North York, close to where I live. Spadina is considered downtown. North York is uptown.

[@SnowmanN49]

That last part, where you commented on the absence of street lights looked like a highway, although a speed limit of 60kmh is pretty slow for a highway. Might be a rural route outside the city. The city streets looked like they had been plowed. Not really very much accumulation, most of the cars were moving OK, just a few boneheads who either don't know how to drive in snow or just failed to put on winter tires. It looked to me like just an average snowfall, maybe 2 or 3 inches, but it doesn't take much to make the roads slick. Most places use dump trucks to clear the snow, with a plow on the front and a spreader on the back it clears and salts at the same time. You know it's a big storm when the snowplows get stuck.

[@Kiera_Jackson74]

This is as of a normal snowstorm you will see for the end of days. Toronto and Vancouver gets chaotic during snow storms but the rest of country just moves along as normal.

[@opiumdennis7249]

Calgary here!!!

[@davidsmith-dr7iq]

Got that during the first snowfall in Saskatoon. Then this amount again, the second time.

[@maggieperry-og9gr]

This is not a bad storm. It is probably the first snowfall that year. Everyone is not well prepared, and if it dumps like this, and is wet and heavy, its like no one remembers how to drive. Seriously, this is not bad enough to remember. THERE IS HARDLY ANY ACCUMULATION!

[@GoWestYoungMan]

It bears mentioning that Canada is twice the size of the European Union so climate varies drastically, most of those Canadian winter videos are clickbait, and people LOVE to exaggerate about weather. It's currently 7C here in Toronto and we haven't had a below zero day yet. The last 3 winters have been too mild to wear my winter coat; I wore my autumn jacket the last 3 winters. It's true that temperatures can plummet to -20C but it rarely happens. When it does, it's over in 1-3 days and temperatures go back to normal (-6C to +4C).

[@MetalAllDayAllNight]

The dude in the red car was completely unprepared for winter lmao he had a ice scraper but no shovel. He was wearing tight pants and basketball shoes and no toque. Winter boots, shovel, toque, gloves, layered clothes are all basic Canadian winter wear. Maybe keep some road salt or even cat litter in your trunk for this type of weather. Also, on a scale from 1 to 10 for winter severity, this was a 3 or a 4. It didn't even look that cold.

[@Amysdustybookshelf]

This is just a typical Ontario snow storm that we see dozens of every year. I wouldn't even consider this a bad storm.

[@chrisrandall2710]

Ottawa here, that really doesn’t look like much snow wise

[@wethenorth6437]

This is pretty standard for a regular snow storm in Toronto but driving in the country or on the highway when it's snowing hard and windy and then you've got some serious driving to do. White-outs are common and not for the faint of heart.

[@SuperDeadparrot]

Ha-Ha! Extreme snow storm? Dude, this is just a Tuesday.

[@deportedtocanada1944]

Look up Timmins and Hearst, Ontario. My Lord. Every winter I played there. This a small storm.

[@xstorm_8_shadowx]

Spent 10 years on Nuns Island right outside of Montreal & the last year I was there the first snowfall we got about 3’ in 24 hours. Now in Florida and I do not miss the north. 😂

[@lorimackenzie810]

Yeah, this is not a big storm. I live in Nova Scotia and the 2 worst winter storms I’ve ever experienced were Stormageddon 2015 (3 snow hurricanes in 6 days, each bringing 30-50cms plus) and White Juan 2004 (nicknamed after just being hit badly by Hurricane Juan in September 2003, both causing power to be out 7 plus days). The snow in the Maritimes is wet and heavy so shovelling off your roof so it doesn’t collapse is a common occurrence. If you get a chance check out videos of these storms 🫣 …love your channel!