London, Ont., was still under a snow-squall warning Wednesday night after it enjoyed a temporary reprieve from a relentless barrage of winter weather.
Environment Canada said the flurries would be heavy at time, with some local accumulations of 15 more centimetres. It predicted a 60 per cent chance of flurries on Thursday.
However, an advancing ridge of high pressure is expected to end the squalls that have bedeviled the region, it said.
The squalls result when cold air from the northwest passes over the still-warm waters of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, known as “lake-effect snow.”
Some London hospitals cancelled non-emergency surgery on Wednesday. Schools closed, exams were cancelled and buses stayed off the roads.
On Wednesday morning, London Mayor Joe Fontana was blessing his lucky stars, and empty skies, during a reprieve from the weather.
After getting 148 centimetres of snow over the past two days, the southern Ontario city woke up to clear skies, giving the overburdened street cleaners a chance to catch up.
"We are still working like crazy to get our sidewalks and local roads done, but we needed the reprieve that we've gotten now," Joe Fontana told CTV's Canada AM.
Fontana said nearby municipalities have offered to send snow plows and staff to help the city dig itself out.
"Every time we seemed to get ahead of it we got dumped on again," Fontana said.
On Tuesday, Fontana almost declared a state of emergency after the record snowfall crippled city services. He said he decided not to make the call for help because the city didn't have any power outages and the hospitals continued to run well.
"We were able to get through it, but it took a lot of hard work and determination; a lot of patience on behalf of the people, the employers and everyone to get this thing done to this point," Fontana said.
City buses were pulled off the road in the afternoon because too many were getting stuck in the massive amounts of snow.
Fontana asked employers to send workers home, and for residents to stay off the roads and check in on elderly neighbours and family.
"It was clear we had a big snow problem and needed to keep people off of the roads and get the job done," he said. "We fell short of being able to call a state of emergency and that was good. We were able to put a plan together anyway."
Barrie, 90 kilometres north of Toronto, was also digging out from lake-effect snowfall on Wednesday.
It remains under a snow squall warning Wednesday night, as does the Bruce Peninsula and the counties along the western shore of Lake Huron.
With files from The Canadian Press
