“Stay home” alert sounded in southern Ontario as ice storm pummels region for second day

Just when people were getting ready to welcome spring, the weather gods served an ominous warning by sending down ice pellets and freezing rain that will continue till tomorrow.

Officials warned people to be careful as a combination of rain, freezing rain and ice pellets slammed the area for the second consecutive day, media reports said.

The weather system encompasses an area from Windsor, Ontario, all the way into Quebec and as far as North Bay.

More than 35,000 customers in the province are without power as of this afternoon, as Hydro One works to restore it. Hundreds of collisions have been reported from across the GTA.

The power utility body said Sunday morning could result in more outages throughout the day.

The freezing rain is expected to turn into rain by the afternoon and continue into Monday morning, which could have an impact on morning commute.

Weather experts said the rainfall will likely make things worse before they get better.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said clean-up staff are working “well-equipped” to handle the situation, despite not being at peak winter capacity.

“We just have to hope the rest of the weather event is something that we can get through, and then maybe spring will actually be here,” he told reporters today.

Toronto's Pearson and Billy Bishop airports are requesting passengers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport. More than 480 flights was cancelled at Pearson since yesterday morning.

Tory said crews are trying to keep the catch basins clear of snow and ice pellets to avoid possible flooding on city streets.

(Reporting by Sayantan Banerjee)