I Won't Be Singing Today

Not at the concert, at any rate. Here are some excerpts from the weather warnings issues by Environment Canada.

A crippling Major winter storm with heavy snow and blowing snow as well as some ice pellets is moving in right on schedule this morning.


A massive winter storm has begun over southern Ontario and the stage is set for this dangerous storm to kick into high gear over the entire forecast district today with near record snowfall amounts.

. . . There have been several reports from the OPP of freezing rain and low to almost nil visibility in heavy snow over southern Ontario earlier this morning.

A few claps of thunder along with bursts of very heavy snow are also likely. . .

Copious amounts of snow as well as strong winds causing blowing snow are expected. The snow will be mixed at times with ice pellets and freezing rain . . .

. . . 40 to 50 cm or more are quite likely in a few areas. Snowfall rates of 2 to 4 cm an hour are expected with low to nil visibility in sustained bursts of heavy snow likely.

Significant blowing snow is expected to accompany the heavy snow due to strong northeast winds gusting to 70 km/h whipping up the freshly fallen snow and causing whiteout conditions.

This is a dangerous winter storm. It is strongly recommended to avoid unnecessary travel during this storm. This massive snow storm has the potential to cause paralyzing conditions as road travel on any unplowed streets becomes next to impossible today.
There remains a high degree of certainty with this storm as the the latest computer model and observed trends continue to forecast this potential record setting winter storm.

I quite like the use of the words crippling, copious, massive, and paralyzing conditions. Very reassuring, I must say. FYI, 40 cm is about 16 inches.

The most unfortunate part? This afternoon's concert was supposed to be recorded. It went very well last night, and would have been a great Christmas stocking stuffer for my Dad. Oh, and my entire family was coming today, including Corwin and Clara. Oh well!

**Edited to say that the concert is going ahead. The snow is so bad that I can't see the house across the street, but the concert is going ahead. And I feel guilty that I'm not there. This sucks.