It may have an unfortunate Twitter-dubbed name, but ‘Santabomb’ may totally rain or snow on your Christmas plans if you are travelling in the Greater Toronto Area.
While the forecast isn’t quite as dire as 2013’s (unfortunately-named) “Snowmageddon,” Environment Canada says it looks “pretty messy” for southern Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Geoff Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment Canada, says while there is still a “a fair amount of uncertainty,” they are tracking two systems that are expected to interact and affect the area between Chicago and the East Coast in the days before Christmas.
“For Toronto itself, it looks like a rain event, when this thing starts, late on the 23rd and into Christmas Eve,” he said.
“The concern for Toronto is a change into snow by Christmas Day at this point. By Christmas Day, this complex system is going to move east of us and that means the winds are going to snap around to come more out of the west. And that’s going to bring down some cold air with it.”
Warm conveyor belt associated with #SantaBomb via GFS. If this was the Pacific you’d hear “atmospheric river”. pic.twitter.com/5522opeJX9
— Josh Timlin (@joshtimlin) December 19, 2014
Coulson says wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres are forecasted for the holiday season, which could affect travel, both on the road and in the air.
“It’s not just snow falling, it’s snow blowing around, reducing visibility,” he said.
There is still a lot of movement in the weather model for next week and Environment Canada says it should be more clear by late Sunday.
“The best advice I can give out to folks who are planning to travel around the Christmas time frame is to stay in touch with the latest information from Environment Canada as forecasters get a better sense of what the storm track is going to be,” Couldson said.
Source:: National Post
