toronto snow

Toronto's first snow of the season prompts inexplicable outrage

The spookiest weekend of the year turned downright scary on Sunday night when — after, what, five months of no snow? — big white flakes burst forth from the sky.

And these were no "light flurries," either: Toronto's first snowfall of the season came on so fast and with such great density that it started to accumulate on roads and lawns.

As of 8 a.m. on Monday morning, rooftops across the city remain white.

The nerve of this snow, to just show up on Nov. 1 like that. Most people hadn't even taken down their Halloween decorations yet!

Toronto residents were quick to bemoan the occurrence on Twitter...

And for every person upset about the appearance of snow, there were three more Twitters user making jokes about how predictable this behaviour has become.

Tweets mocking Canadians who still get surprised by snow every year are now just about as common as the annual outpouring of snow-related grief itself.

"You're not really from Toronto if you're not gonna act outraged by snow you knew was coming," joked one local on Twitter Sunday night.

Regardless of one's personal thoughts on griping about snow, its first appearance never fails to get the entire city's attention.

Last night, that attention might actually have been justified — more so than it has been in some other years.

Environment Canada actually issued a special weather statement on Sunday ahead of the snowfall, warning that it could create dangerous driving conditions with low visibility.

Accompanied by wind gusts of up to 80 km/h, the heavy snow really did look quite extreme for something so early in the season.

All in all, the blast left one-to-three centimetres of white stuff on the ground in various parts of the GTA, with northern regions most-heavily impacted.

For those who like snow, last night's window views were actually quite pretty.

And for those who don't, better days are on the way.

Much warmer temperatures are expected to settle in as we move through the work week, with highs of 16 C forecasted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The brief cold snap we're experiencing now is being described by Weather Network meteorologists as "a sneak preview " or "false start" to winter.

Once temperatures bounce back to more seasonal (or rather, above-seasonal) levels, they're expected to stick around for a while.

Wild weather fluctuations are something nobody in Toronto can even pretend to be shocked about, as they happen so often... but that's not to say people can't still be annoyed.

"Last week I was wearing shorts and a shirt sweating in the 'summer'heat a week later I'm wearing winter clothes it's a mini snow storm outside and I have the heat on," wrote one Twitter user when thick flurries hit the downtown core Sunday evening.

"Toronto weather is no joke."

Lead photo by

daalbirs


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