Southern Ontario bracing for the coldest week in years

A polar vortex has resulted in cold weather alerts – CTV London’s Scott Miller caught up with locals and asked how they’re dealing with the cold snap.

Mother Nature is reminding us what winter used to be like across southern Ontario this week.

“I guess that’s typical January weather from what I remember years ago,’ said Dwight Russum as he was filling up at a Wingham gas station this afternoon.

Off of Lake Huron, snow squalls and blowing snow made for treacherous driving conditions across much of midwestern Ontario today. School buses were cancelled, and some schools were closed due to the wintery weather. Some roads were even closed in Huron and Bruce County due to the conditions. To top it all off, temperatures sat at roughly -30 C with windchill in some parts of the region.

It’s the kind of weather that literally takes your breath away, and if you end up in a ditch - as many people did today - it’s the kind of conditions that could be life-threatening if left out in the cold for an extended period of time.

“Think about you and your family and whoever else might be traveling with you and think, could we sit here for a few hours and be comfortable if we had to? We just don’t want to see people heading out unprepared, and they don’t have any warm clothing, they don’t have a blanket, they don’t have a charged cell phone or a cell cord even to charge their phone with in the car,” said Huron OPP Constable, Craig Soldan.

This isn’t a one day phenomenon, the blowing snow, squalls, and especially the -20 C to -30 C windchills will be with us until at least Thursday morning. It’s best to be prepared.

“We want to make sure that you’ve got your vehicle topped up with gas. Make sure your tires are, they have ample tread. If you don’t go with snow tires, make sure you have a good all season tire with ample tread. You know, if you have a cell phone, make sure it’s charged up, bring a charge cord with you,” said Soldan.

Motorists we spoke to said that they’re prepared, and even enjoying this blast of arctic air.

“I’m loving it. I love the snow. It’s hard to snowmobile without snow. I even like the cold weather, because you need that to make snow. Warm coat, warm hat. There you go,” said snowmobiler and motorist Mitchell Martens.

“The cold weather - we can always put more clothes on to get warm, but it’ll kill the flu bugs, anyway,” said an optimistic, Mildred Watterson.

“Oh, I’d rather go to Florida, but, I don’t know, I guess I’m going to tough it out,” said motorist, Russum.

Health units across the province including those in Middlesex, Huron, and Perth Counties have issued Cold Weather Alerts due to the frigid temperatures as they urge residents to “limit their exposure” to the bone-chilling elements.