London

London digging out from under a foot of snow

City crews are out in full force clearing streets and sidewalks this morning.

Around 30 cm of snow fell in parts of the city. A snow squall warning remains in effect.

Even the youngest Londoners are helping dig out after 30 centimetres fell over the city (Andrew Lupton/ CBC News )

There's no doubt now. Winter has arrived.

Environment Canada Meteorologist Kelly Hobelman said some parts of the city got nearly a foot of snow overnight.

"We have varying reports across the city. Towards the airport in London we have reports that are around between 13 and 17 centimetres. However,  we have estimates in the south end of the city of just under a foot of snow that fell last night."

Officials had issued a snow squall warning, which ended on Wednesday.

But it's not over yet. A special weather statement remains in effect for the London area.

"An additional 10 cm could be possible before that snow squall lifts north of the city. We're expecting late this morning, or early this afternoon," said Hobelman.

Snowplow drivers have been working since the wee hours clearing sidewalks and streets (Amanda Margison/ CBC News)

She said the squalls will linger the longest north of London.

"If you do plan on travelling north of the city, it will be probably be lingering through the afternoon, once you get closer to Huron County."

And even when the squalls are over, London will be getting more snow. 

"We have another low pressure system that is moving towards Southwestern Ontario. So we will have a brief break probably late morning or early afternoon from the heavier snow, but we do expect some more snow to move in later this afternoon and this evening."  Total additional accumulations of 5 centimetres are expected.

City crews out in full force

Snow plows and crews with shovels have been busy overnight. City workers Ernie Barrett and Craig Springer are on the downtown beat.

"We're doing it with shovels. We do it the old fashioned way down here, downtown," said Barrett.

City worker Ernie Barrett is on a 13-hour shift. (Rebecca Zandbergen/CBC News)

Barrett and his crew started at midnight and will continue until 1 p.m. today. They shovel downtown corners, clearing curbs for pedestrians.

"I don't even know how many we have in this beat, but we're doing them all over again. I think we've got about 60."

Springer takes the snow in stride.

A cyclist navigating downtown London Wednesday morning (Amanda Margison/ CBC News)

"This is normal."

"There's not much to not like about it. It's just snow. I mean we live in Canada, right. This is normal. It's no different than shovelling your driveway, there's just a bunch more."