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Snow squalls have returned to the east end of Lake Ontario, contributing to crashes that have closed sections of Highway 401 Tuesday.
Environment Canada first issued snow squall warnings from Kingston to Trenton that morning, continuing out of the region to about Pickering.
The warning ended for Belleville and Trenton shortly after noon and for Napanee around 1:30 p.m.
Highway 401 is closed in both directions between Wallbridge Loyalist Road on Belleville’s western border and Glen Miller Road in Trenton because of several collisions involving about 50 vehicles, according to Ontario Provincial Police and the province’s transportation ministry.
Drivers should follow official detour routes and go to the Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens arena on Couch Crescent on the Trenton waterfront if they’re stranded and need to warm up, OPP said.
Buses are also taking people from the highway crashes to the arena, police said. There are no reports of serious injuries.
The eastbound 401 closure starts at Northumberland’s County Road 30 to Brighton.
The westbound 401 was also closed by crashes at Palace Road in Napanee and at Lennox and Addington Road 4 near Odessa until around 2:30 p.m.
Around 10 centimetres of snow
The weaker local warning currently covers the Kingston area. It says to expect five to 10 centimetres of snow blown by gusts up to 50 km/h Tuesday morning and afternoon.
The warning for the south shore of Prince Edward County is for 10 to 20 centimetres of snow blown by gusts up to 70 km/h until early evening. School buses have been cancelled again in the county.
The warnings are yellow, the lowest on Environment Canada’s three-colour scale.
The Highway 62 overpass over Highway 401 in Belleville, Ont., around 11 a.m. on Tuesday. (Ministry of Transportation of Ontario)
The broader Kingston area has been pelted again and again by snow in the back half of January. This storm could bring enough to Trenton to top 100 centimetres since Jan. 15.
In both Kingston and in Ottawa, where only flurries are forecast Tuesday, the temperature remains colder than normal: daytime highs around –10 C and overnight lows around –20 C, plus wind chill.
That’s expected to continue for the rest of the week.
