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Wednesday’s icy forecast has cancelled all but a few school buses and closed some schools entirely.<\/p>\n
Freezing rain is expected to start early in the morning and last most of the day, leading to orange-level warnings about the dangers for the Ottawa-Gatineau area including likely utility outages and property damage.<\/p>\n
Non-essential travel is not recommended.<\/p>\n
By about 6 a.m., the storm was hitting western parts of the region such as Pembroke and Bancroft.<\/p>\n
All schools are closed in western Quebec and Renfrew County. <\/p>\n
There are also school closures north of Kingston-Belleville: Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School, St. Martin of Tours Catholic School, North Hastings public schools, the North Addington Education Centre and Clarendon Central Public School.<\/p>\n
The only school buses that are running are in the Kingston-Belleville area, where there is a rainfall warning instead.<\/p>\n
Some private schools in the region have also closed Wednesday, including Coll\u00e8ge St-Joseph in Hull, Coll\u00e8ge Saint-Alexandre, and the Montessori School in Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Check with your school or board for information on what happens when there are no buses or classes.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa International Airport Authority said at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday that about 50 flights had been cancelled. Via Rail says weather delays are possible between Kingston and Quebec City.<\/p>\n
The forecast<\/p>\n
Environment Canada is forecasting two to three centimetres of freezing rain\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0for an area from Gatineau north to Maniwaki and east to the Montreal area.<\/p>\n
The rest of western Quebec and northern eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, could get one or two centimetres of freezing rain under their warnings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That amount of freezing rain falling does not necessarily mean that’s how much ice will build up, according to Environment Canada.<\/p>\n
Eastern Ontario’s warning, which covers communities north of Highway 7,\u00a0then north of the St. Lawrence River further east until it brings in Cornwall, says more of a mix of rain and freezing rain could end up falling, especially for areas further south.<\/p>\n
The storm could be similar to the April 2023 ice storm<\/a> that hit the area, according to Eric Tomlinson, an Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist.<\/p>\n Hundreds of thousands of local customers lost power in that storm, which Hydro Ottawa described as the worst ice storm in the area since 1998. <\/p>\n Communities south of those warnings should get 20 to 40 millimetres of rain.<\/p>\n Areas north and east of Kingston could see precipitation change back and forth between rain and freezing rain.<\/p>\n There is a yellow-level freezing rain warning just south of the orange warning, affecting communities such as Brockville and Tweed.<\/p>\n Just south of that less severe freezing rain warning is a rainfall warning for Mallorytown and communities to its west such as Belleville and Kingston. <\/p>\n Temperatures are expected to be around the freezing mark in Ottawa-Gatineau from Tuesday night until Thursday.<\/p>\n Orange warnings are in the middle of Environment Canada’s three-colour scale. They signal uncommonly severe weather likely to cause significant disruption. <\/p>\n Ways to prepare<\/p>\n The City of Ottawa recommends preparing for extreme weather by having\u00a0emergency supplies<\/a>, such as non-perishable food and batteries, to cover three days.<\/p>\n