Snowstorm Hits Southwestern Ontario, Disrupts Daily Life

The City of Windsor reports that road crews have begun catching up on snow removal after a full day of heavy snowfall that affected travel, closed schools, and halted services throughout Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent, and Sarnia-Lambton.

According to Stacey Mc Guire, the city’s executive director of operations, the city deployed a fleet of 21 plows to clear main and secondary routes.

This includes three dedicated to the EC Row Expressway and its ramps.

“One of our challenges last night was that it really didn’t stop snowing after it started,” Mc Guire said.

“So we were running these routes, and then by the time we got back around to them they’d be snow covered again.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada hasn’t released official measurements for Thursday’s snowfall yet, according to Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Monica Vaswani.

Flight Delays and Road Closures

However, unofficial reports indicate that around 10-15 centimetres had fallen in Windsor by 7 a. m. and about 10 centimetres in Sarnia.

Vaswani mentioned she didn’t have specific data for Chatham-Kent but stated that unofficial figures from London showed snowfall amounts between 20-30 centimetres by 9 a. m.

The snowy conditions resulted in delays and cancellations at Windsor International Airport.

The Ontario Provincial Police shut down multiple roads across southwestern Ontario during the day due to unsafe conditions.

A snow-covered Crawford Ave. in Windsor, Jan. 15, 2026. (Kerri Breen/CBC)

This included Highway 401 at Orford Road, which remained closed as of 2:15 p. m.

The police reopened Highway 401 eastbound at Queens Line in Tilbury around 3:30 p. m. after closing it earlier at about 7 a. m. due to “multiple collisions,” as noted on the OPP west region X. com feed.

Both Essex and Tecumseh declared significant weather events on Thursday because conditions were so severe that their road crews couldn’t meet provincial standards for clearing roads.

Tecumseh officials also cautioned residents about possible transit delays due to snow accumulation.

The roads maintenance supervisor for Essex County reported having 18 trucks out working on salting and plowing routes that take two to three hours each to complete.

Dan Kraynack said they’ve been much busier with snow clearing on Wednesday and Thursday compared to earlier winter days.

‘We’ve Used About Three Times as Much Salt’

“If you want to go back to Christmas, it was pretty green outside,” he said. “So the last 24 hours have been obviously definitely 100 percent worse than [those] days.”

Kraynack added that this season has generally been milder compared to winters five or ten years ago when snowfall was heavier overall.

Mc Guire pointed out though that winter arrived earlier in Windsor this year compared to last year with more snowfall events occurring even if total amounts aren’t higher overall.”

“In November and December of this year we’ve used about three times as much salt as we did last year during those same months,” she said.

The Victorian Order of Nurses cancelled their Meals on Wheels service in Windsor due to bad weather conditions, a spokesperson told CBC.

The Community Support Centre of Essex County also suspended their Meals on Wheels program for parts of Essex County.

“It is volunteer run,” said Paula Ivanitz, the Food Services Co-Ordinator.”We want everyone to be safe.”

School bus services were called off across Windsor-Essex on Thursday.

Both the Lambton-Kent District School Board and St. Clair Catholic District School Board shut down schools entirely for safety reasons.

The weather office predicts another system will move through the area on Friday; however this one will be an Alberta clipper system,” Vaswani explained.”It is fast-moving and doesn’t usually drop a significant amount of snow.”

“We’re expecting anywhere from two to five centimetres in southwestern Ontario when it’s all done.”

Temperatures are set to return closer towards seasonal averages over the weekend,” Vaswani added,”though there could still be what she described as “nuisance weather”, including brief heavier snowfall periods.”

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