A massive blizzard brought blowing snow and high winds to Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces on Sunday, disrupting air travel and creating dangerous driving conditions.
The storm first hit southern Ontario late Saturday, dumping heavy snow and ice pellets from Windsor, Ont., all the way to Ottawa, then moved eastward on Sunday.
Between 20 and 40 centimetres of snow were expected to fall on the various regions.
Officials at Toronto's Pearson International Airport had to cancel or delay 185 arriving flights and 80 departing flights on Sunday, after cancelling about 30 flights on Saturday night.
"We do have reduced operations," Toby Lennox of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority told CBC Newsworld. "We're down to about half our capacity.
"Normally we could be doing 84 landings and takeoffs an hour, but we're down to about 40," he said.
"Now, we understand that there might be some freezing rain in the forecast and that of course makes things a little more mucky, but we're working hard to keep things moving along," Lennox said.
For regional travel in Ontario, Via Rail said it was ready to take up the slack and had extra seats available on Sunday.
Storm batters Montreal
Several flights in and out of Montreal were also delayed or cancelled because the storm, which was expected to dump 35 centimetres on the city.
Highway 40 near Repentigny, Que., was ice-covered. Most other roads in the province were snow-covered.
Transport Quebec's Bruno Lacombe said several people had driven off the highways because of the snowy conditions.
He recommended that people stay off the highways unless absolutely necessary.
Ice pellets, thunder and zero visibility
The fierce wintry storm featured a mix of blowing snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and even thunder.
Police were warning motorists to use common sense and take their time on the roads.
In some areas of Ontario and Quebec, blowing snow and winds gusting to 70 kilometres an hour were causing whiteout conditions. There were reports of freezing rain and almost zero visibility.
About 600 collisions have been reported in the Greater Toronto Area since 6 a.m. ET. Const. Dave Woodford of the Ontario Provincial Police in Vaughan said most were minor accidents involving cars hitting highway guardrails or skidding off the roads.
"If you do need to drive, we're encouraging people to slow down, allow ample time to get to where you need to get to and just drive very defensively," said Sgt. Dave Rektor of the OPP in London.
Storm hits Atlantic provinces
In Nova Scotia, Environment Canada said some of the heaviest snow was bound for Halifax later Sunday with winds between 50 and 80 km/h.
Numerous cancellations were reported at Halifax International Airport.
Cape Breton already had a blast of winter on Saturday. About 14 centimetres of snow fell in some parts of the island with whiteouts along many roads.
New Brunswick was also in the storm's path. The northwestern part of the province was expected to get as much as 40 centimetres on Sunday.
The bad weather also hit Prince Edward Island. The storm forced the CBC to postpone a food-bank fundraising concert to be held Sunday night in Summerside.
Forecasters predicted the storm would batter most of Newfoundland and southeastern Labrador with heavy snow and high winds late Sunday and part of Monday.