The freezing rain began early this morning, and the Roads and Parking Services team and Public Works colleagues have been hard at work. Crews were deployed last night to treat icy conditions and, in some areas, are still cleaning up from yesterday’s snow event. Given the prolonged freezing rain event today, the transportation network will be icy and slippery - patience is key. Operations will take longer than normal as staff must go slow and adjust to slippery conditions.
Forecast and conditions
Environment Canada has issued a Freezing Rain Warning for the Ottawa region. The prolonged freezing rain event began early this morning and is expected to continue until early evening with ice accretion of 5 to 10 millimetres possible. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways, and parking lots will become icy and slippery, and there is a possibility of power outages and tree damage from the ice accretion. The daytime high is expected to be zero today and will rise well above the freezing mark overnight when the precipitation is expected to transition to showers with a risk of a thunderstorm. Tomorrow, showers are expected to continue until noon, and the temperature is expected to reach 17 degrees, causing a significant melt. Then, temperatures are expected to drop to minus 7 degrees Monday night, causing everything to freeze up.
Slow down when using the transportation network today. Take extra care when walking, driving or cycling in affected areas. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become icy and slippery. Please adjust to the conditions of the network.
Our response
All resources have been deployed. Supervisors are monitoring the conditions of the transportation network, and our focus is treating priority roads, bus routes, the Transitway and the winter cycling network with salt and abrasives. Crews have started to transition into residential neighbourhoods and will continue this work throughout the day. Our partners in Parks Maintenance have been out in full force, clearing City facility parking lots (with a priority on Fire and Paramedic stations) as well as lots serving recreation centres.
We are also working closely with our partners in Forestry Services who have staff on-call should we require assistance with fallen branches or trees on the transportation network. Traffic Services continue to monitor traffic flows and the impacts the weather may have on the network, and everything is moving well at this time.
With the incoming rain tomorrow, we will also monitor areas that are prone to localized flooding and address any water pooling by ensuring that catch basins and ditches are open and able to take in water.
In the meantime, we are asking for anyone who can to please ensure that your local catch basin is clear and able to take in water. With over 100,000 catch basins in the City we cannot do it alone and would appreciate any support you can offer.
Find your nearest catch basin using our catch basin locator map. Need to report a blocked catch basin? Let us know!
