Record Nor'Easter Slams area

The much anticipated nor'easter has delivered a hard hit to our area overnight. Heavy Snow began around midnight and has accumulated around 10cm in Kemptville and it continues to snow heavily. Visibility overnight was less than a km at times. The system this morning is near Long Island, NY. A dry slot and slightly milder air has moved into Montreal. At this time the precip is lighter there, but winds are fierce. A gust to 71km/h out of the northeast was reported in the last hour.

The weather is making for difficult travel with hundreds of flights cancelled in the east. Call ahead. Road travel is very difficult in a narrow band from Brockville to the Quebec border and north to Ottawa, with snow covered roads and low visibility. Power outages have been reported in NY State.

Yesterday the storm produced coastal flooding and a record 200mm (8 inches) of rain in Central Park. That was the second highest 24 hour total ever for NYC.

As expected, Environment Canada issued warnings at 0245 AM this morning, when everyone was sleeping, a full 24 hours after their US counterparts, for Heavy Snow in Eastern Ontario. I know it was a difficult forecast, but please! The MTO has been slow to respond with plowing this morning, but with no warnings in place, I imagine they were slow to react to the "rainy forecast" All in all this Nor'Easter behaved just as US forecasters said it would last Thursday. Needless to say travel safe today.