Eighty additional emergency spaces have been opened at homeless shelters in Toronto after an Extreme Cold Weather Alert was issued for the city on Saturday.
Environment Canada is forecasting a chilly night for the city with temperatures dipping down to -13 C overnight and winds gusting at 30 kilometres per hour.
With the blustery conditions, temperatures will feel like -22 C overnight, the weathernetwork.com reported Saturday.
Additional municipal vans will be patrolling Toronto streets in an effort to bring the homeless in from the cold.
Drop-in centres will also be handing out Toronto Transit Commission tickets to aid people in reaching centres.
Toronto Hostel Services calls an alert when Environment Canada predicts the following conditions:
- a temperature of -15 C or lower, without wind chill;
- wind chill warning for outdoor activity for people in the Toronto area;
- extreme weather conditions, such as a blizzard or ice storm.
No wind chill warnings have been issued for Southern Ontario, but Environment Canada issued a snow squall warning for areas to the north, including Barrie, Gravenhurst, Parry Sound and Huntsville.
The weather service called for whiteout conditions and blowing snow in the region into Sunday, with as much as 20 centimetres of snowfall in some areas.
Eastern Canada
Meanwhile, Newfoundland is bracing for another winter blast Saturday as parts of the Avalon Peninsula are expected to receive at least 35 centimetres of accumulated snow.
A low-pressure system developing east of South Carolina will track northeastward overnight bringing snow to Newfoundland by Sunday morning.
A winter storm warning has been issued for the Burin Peninsula, the North and South Avalon Peninsula, Clarenville and the Bonavista Peninsula.
"Snowsqualls can be expected to give local snowfall accumulations of up to 25 centimetres today and tonight. Visibility will be reduced to near zero at times," Environment Canada's website reads.
Western Canada
Moving farther west, Environment Canada issued wind chill and snowfall warnings for areas throughout Western Canada on Saturday.
An Arctic high-pressure ridge in Saskatchewan is creating a cold northwesterly flow over Manitoba, producing wind chills in the -40 C to -45 C range, the weather office reports.
Wind chill warnings are in effect for the Killarney, Portage La Prairie, Selkirk, Steinbach, and Brandon areas of Manitoba. While farther north, the Tadoule Lake, Leaf Rapids and Gillam areas are also being warned about the extreme cold.
In British Columbia, a Pacific weather system prompted Environment Canada to issue a snowfall warning for several areas.
"The system is expected to give total snowfall accumulations up to 15 cm to Prince George, McGregor and Williston and total snowfall amounts near 10 cm over the B.C. south Peace River by this afternoon," the weather office's website reported Saturday.
Snowfall warnings have also been issued for Hinton, Whitecourt, Fox Creek and Grande Prairie, Alta.
