Toronto storm may be over but get ready for high winds

Good morning Toronto! What a show, that thunder snow.

If you rolled over and saw the wall of white outside your window, here’s what you need to know.

The winter storm warning issued by Environment Canada for Toronto ended this morning at 8:34 a.m., but that doesn’t mean business as usual.

The weather service says winds are expected to be gusting up to 50 kilometres per hour later this afternoon, with a high of 2C. Temperatures will rise to a high of 7C tomorrow, according to Environment Canada. We’ll check on how the city is preparing for a possible melt.

On the city’s end, all recreation and indoor arenas will be closed today and all scheduled programming is cancelled — that means swim classes, indoor skating and all drop-in programs. Permits are also cancelled. A tweet from the City of Toronto’s official account said classes would be made up at the end of the season where possible. The city said centres are expected to open Sunday as normal.

For those looking for respite, Metro Hall remains open as a warming centre and Agincourt, John Innes, Masaryk-Cowan and Regent Park community centres remain open for shelter only.

Toronto History Museums and cultural centres will also be closed.

But don’t worry, outdoor recreation is a go if you want to enjoy the snowfall — the city has a list of toboggan locations along with safety tips.

Toronto Hydro was dealing with scattered outages last night and tweeted this morning they were responding to “multiple safety emergencies” like downed wires. The tweet said they were not able to provide estimated times that those issues would be resolved but that crews “are working as quickly and safely as possible.”

The utility’s outage map showed clusters of customers impacted as of 9:30 a.m., with the largest outage appearing to between Bloor Street West and Dundas Street West and Dufferin Street and Christie Street in the city’s west end.

Plows and salt trucks are working across the city, but due to the storm the city is suspending service requests. Any emergencies should be reported to 311. Residents can check with the city’s PlowTO map for recent clearing.

If you’re trying to get around on transit today, check the TTC’s service alerts before leaving because there are several routes and stops that are delayed or not operating due to weather conditions or issues like downed wires. Line 3, the Scarborough RT, is completely shutdown and shuttle buses are running between Kennedy and McCowan stations.

Toronto Pearson Airport tweeted that “lingering effects” of the storm may affect flights still and warned travellers to check their flight’s status before travelling to Pearson. The airport’s departures updates showed multiple delays before 10 a.m. Saturday.

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