Winter Storm With High Winds, Heavy Snow Headed for Ontario and Quebec: Environment Canada

A person clears snow from around a car during a snowstorm in Montreal on Feb. 16, 2025. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes

Significant amounts of snowfall and high winds are likely to hit areas of northern Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes over the next several days, according to a weather advisory from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

The storm originated in the United States and is expected to dump 30 to 60 centimeters of snow in northeastern Ontario between Nov. 26 and 28, along with 10 to 20 centimeters in northwestern Ontario, before hitting a large portion of northern Quebec with 10 to 30 centimeters as well as areas of the Maritimes with 10 to 20 centimeters, according to ECCC meteorologist Gerald Cheng.

“This winter storm is already wreaking havoc in northern Ontario, already snow is falling for many parts and some routes are already closed,” Cheng said during a Nov. 26 briefing, adding that high winds up to 90 kilometres per hour are projected around the northeastern shores of Lake Ontario and for Lake Erie, as well as winds up to 80 kilometres per hour in the Greater Toronto Area.

ECCC added that further road closures are possible as the high winds and heavy snowfall take place throughout the week.

ECCC has currently not issued any weather alerts for southern Quebec, including the Montreal area, but says northern and eastern Quebec will be hardest hit in communities around the southeastern shores of James Bay and around the province’s North Shore between the Manicouagan and Minganie regions. Northern New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and areas of Prince Edward Island are also forecast to receive significant snowfall, according to the ECCC.

The storm takes place as ECCC announced Nov. 26 that it has changed its system for national weather alerts to a colour-coded system that uses yellow for short-term bad weather, orange alerts for weather situations likely to cause considerable damage, and red for severe and life-threatening weather events.

“Many other countries use it such as the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, South Africa, New Zealand just to name a few, and for them it’s very effective in communicating risks to the population,” Cheng said Nov. 26.

In terms of the current storm, northern Ontario has received an orange alert while the rest of the storm is designated as the lower alert level of yellow.

In a Nov. 26 ECCC news release announcing the new colour-coded system, ECCC Minister Julie Dabrusin said Canada is experiencing “extreme weather” more often, making the new system all the more timely.

“We continue to experience more frequent and extreme weather in Canada, which makes it more important than ever for Canadians to have access to clear, accurate, and easy-to-understand weather alerts,” she said.

ECCC added that examples of historical weather events that would have been categorized as red include the 1998 ice storm in Quebec and Ontario that brought down many transmission towers, as well as the immense snowfall in St. John’s, N.L., that left the city submerged in snow in 2020.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.