Winter weather advisories lifts for parts of GTA as storm cleanup continues

A winter weather travel advisory has lifted for parts of the Greater Toronto Area on Wednesday morning.

Environment Canada put Toronto, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham under a winter weather travel advisory on Tuesday afternoon. The advisory was lifted for Toronto on Tuesday evening. 

The federal weather agency said these areas could see five more centimetres of snow as well as poor visibility at times due to gusty winds and blowing snow.

Newmarket, Georgina and northern York Region as well as Oshawa, Pickering and southern Durham Region are no longer under a snow squall warning as of Wednesday morning. The federal weather agency said Tuesday there could be "near-zero visibility" in heavy and blowing snow.

The areas could see five to 10 centimetres of snow on top of what has already fallen, Environment Canada said at about 7:30 p.m on Tuesday. 

"Snow squalls cause weather conditions to vary considerably; changes from clear skies to heavy snow within just a few kilometres are common. Travel is expected to be hazardous due to reduced visibility," the warning said.

Tuesday's forecast for Toronto called for a high of -6 C, with wind gusts of up to 50 km/h. There was a 30 per cent chance of flurries in the early evening and overnight, as well as local blowing snow, Environment Canada said. 

The temperature was set to fall to -15 C by Tuesday evening with wind chill values of -21 overnight.

Clearing city streets could take weeks 

Between 16 and 23 centimetres of snow fell across Toronto over the weekend, which was in addition to 15 to 20 centimetres that fell last Wednesday, the city said in a news release on Monday. 

An update from the city sent just after 6 p.m. Tuesday said crews had completed multiple rounds of snow clearing on roads, sidewalks and TTC infrastructure. 

But removing all that snow from the city could take up to three weeks, the release said. 

That's because city crews can only push the snow so far before it has to be loaded into trucks and transported to the city's designated storage sites, said Toronto city manager Paul Johnson. That work is set to begin Wednesday.

"Plows moving down the street go at a relatively decent pace. If you've got a load snow onto the back of a of a of a truck and then take it somewhere for storage, it takes much longer," he said during an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning guest host Jill Dempsey

"So it will take some time for us to get through all of that."

Over the last five days, the city has received close to 6,600 snow-related inquiries through 311, while also initiating 6793 snow-related service requests, a City of Toronto spokesperson said. 

WATCH | Snow removal underway in Toronto after back-to-back storms: 

GTA commuters can expect Toronto snow to be fully removed in 3 weeks

3 days ago

Duration 4:17

City of Toronto officials said on Monday it'll be weeks before crews are able to fully remove all the snow after back-to-back snowstorms blanketed much of the region. They're also warning drivers not to park in certain areas or risk getting ticketed.

Diko Nahabedian, who owns Mr. Plow King, a residential snow removal service, said the demand for his business has been "overwhelming" over the last few days. But figuring out where to put all that snow is challenging, he said. 

"We can't make the snow disappear but we're doing our best to tuck it into corners and be as clever as we can," he said. 

The city will remove snow on a priority basis, beginning with locations such as main street sidewalks, pedestrian signals, transit stops and hospital and emergency service stations. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the city's major snowstorm condition and significant weather event declarations remain in effect in Toronto, which means parking continues to be banned on snow routes and all streetcar routes.