If you absolutely must, for some dire essential reason, drive in or around Toronto today, proceed with extreme caution, lest you wind up in a fender bender or worse.

Collisions are being reported all over the city as plows work to clear roughly two centimetres of snow that accumulated over the course of just one hour on Wednesday morning.

Winter weather travel advisories are in place for most of Southern Ontario due to this "narrow but intense band of snow," as Environment Canada calls it.

ECCC has issued winter weather travel advisories for parts of central and southern Ontario. Snow has started to accumulate and will continue until 7 am this morning. Keep your distance on the roads, and slow down because it will be a messy commute today #ONStorm @weathernetwork pic.twitter.com/x6YwIpFK1E

— Melinda Singh❄ (@WxMelinda21) December 30, 2020

"Road conditions may quickly deteriorate once the snow arrives," noted the federal weather agency around 7 a.m. in a series of alerts around the GTA.

"Additional precipitation is expected to move in by later this morning. A wintry mix of freezing rain and ice pellets is possible, particularly for areas inland from Lake Ontario."

Areas closer to the lake, such as downtown Toronto, will likely see more rain than snow, but conditions could remain dangerously slippery as the threat of freezing precipitation looms.

"Travel may become difficult at times this morning and afternoon due to snow and possible freezing rain," reads Environment Canada's warning for Halton, Peel, York and Durham.

Take your time out there #Toronto very slippery out. Give yourself extra time #Ontario #ontariolockdown #lockdown #StormTO #ONStorm pic.twitter.com/v6Fmfy2VLR

— Felix (@FelixTse11) December 30, 2020

The agency has not issued a special weather statement for Toronto proper, but collisions have been messing up local roads all morning.

Toronto Police say they've received 17 calls for collisions within the city this morning since 5 a.m., compared to only six such calls during the same time period yesterday.

"Please remember that we are not called, nor do we go, to all collisions," said Toronto Police Constable David Hopkinson to blogTO. "Some are sent to Collision Reporting Centres and others are negotiated between the involved drivers."

My morning nail biter — this poor truck taking several to get up the hill on Spadina near Fort York. Caught the last backwards slide. It’s slippery out there! #citywx pic.twitter.com/dBc7lvywX2

— Tammie Sutherland (@citytammie) December 30, 2020

Without fail, as always, this year too we forgot how to drive in winter...... #Toronto #winrer #driving https://t.co/2WYYHcUiF5

— ahmer z (@Ahmerz) December 30, 2020

As usual, locals are griping about the number of accidents on Toronto roads, blaming the hasty behaviour of drivers.

"Two centimetres of god damn snow and accidents all over the place. Why should I be surprised? People flying cross country in a pandemic, why would they slow down in slippery driving conditions," wrote one person on Twitter.

"Messy, essential travel commute this morning," tweeted City of Toronto Manager of Operations and Maintenance for Transportation Services, Mark Mills.

"Equipment dispatched salting roads and bike lanes. Give the equipment time and space! SLOW AND EASY WINS THE RACE!"