The latest snow storm to hit southern Ontario didn’t live up to its billing.
Originally forecast to dump upwards of 25 centimetres of snow on the Peterborough-area overnight Monday into Tuesday morning, the area only received 10 to 15 cm of snow with local pockets of up to 20 cm.
READ MORE: Snowfall warning for Peterborough, City of Kawartha Lakes and area on Family Day
“A lot of drifting of the snow as well, so it becomes tough to measure when that happens,” said Anthony Farnell, Global News chief meteorologist. “This is the low end of what we were forecasting. As a whole, the system underperformed slightly once it moved north of the border.”
Tuesday February 16, 2021. Please be advised that due to inclement weather, and school transportation is cancelled today for all of STSCO jurisdiction. All KPR Schools will be closed. https://t.co/IUqpOGOD9c
— stsco.ca (@stsco_ca) February 16, 2021
Important Announcement for Parents: ALL KPR SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED TODAY due to inclement weather/bus cancellations.
— KPRDSB (@kprschools) February 16, 2021
A reminder that all schools in our Board remain open this morning despite bus cancellations.
— PVNCCDSB (@PVNCCDSB) February 16, 2021
Farnell tells Global News Peterborough the snow-to-liquid ratio was lower than expected.
“We were thinking because it was cold, it would be 15 to 20:1, but it was closer to 10:1, so that was one reason for lower amounts. It was also a such a fast-moving system, already off the east coast, so it didn’t have too much time to pile up,” Farnell said.
That said, it was still a morning filled with shovelling for many Peterborough-area residents.
It was also a snow day for students across the region.
Student Transportation Services of Central Ontario (STSCO) cancelled all student transportation at 5:15 a.m.
Read more:
Snow storm closes schools in Hamilton, Halton and Niagara
“This weather forecast was such that we could think about it ahead of time,” said STSCO chief administrative officer Joel Sloggett. “A couple of bus companies, I heard from them yesterday. We basically ensured that we are all ready to communicate early this morning and that’s what happened.”
Students within the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and Trillium Lakelands District School Board weren’t able to be driven to school by parents as schools are closed during snow days per COVID-19 guidelines created by the boards.
Most of those students were able to continue education on Tuesday through distance learning while the schools were closed.
Schools within the Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board remained open despite the bus cancellations.
READ MORE: 2 dead in Texas as winter storm hits U.S. leaving millions without power
Meanwhile, crews with the City of Peterborough and Peterborough County spent the day clearing roads.
“Crews were set up to be deployed overnight. As soon as the first flake fell, trucks were on the road,” said John Czerniawski, a supervisor with Peterborough’s Public Works department. “Extra resources were added overnight to roads, sidewalks, trails and parking garages. We worked throughout the night and day.”
“We’ve got about 700 km of road network we are responsible for. We started preparing for the winter event back last week. We noticed there was a weather front coming through and we had our staff ready to go over the week,” said Grant Murphy, Peterborough County director of infrastructure.
“All the salt and sand domes were filled to capacity.”
Murphy said staff reported to operations Tuesday morning at about 4 o’clock to begin clearing the roads.
Snow storm halts return to in-class learning at some Toronto-area schools
