Sudbury hit by an early snow storm

Trick-or-treaters will have to wear their snow pants as they go door-to-door Friday evening thanks to an unusually early snowfall for Greater Sudbury.

By Friday morning, about five cm of snow had accumulated in Greater Sudbury, said Geoff Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Coulson said Greater Sudbury can expect anywhere from five to 10 more centimetres of snow by Saturday morning.

“It's a bit of an introduction and maybe a reminder for folks to think about snow tires,” Coulson said.

The winter weather will be short-lived, Coulson said, since temperatures are expected to rise closer to seasonal levels by Sunday.

By next week, daytime highs should be between 6 C and 9 C.

But by late November, Greater Sudbury could be re-introduced to more snowfall.

Coulson said late-November daytime highs will drop to the freezing mark, and lows could be around -5 C to -6 C.

Greater Sudbury Const. Bert Lapalme said police cleared 14 collisions by 10 a.m. due to the poor road conditions.

“We tend to forget how last winter was,” Lapalme said.

Lapalme said he could not say how many collisions police were still responding to by 10 a.m., but added none of the cleared incidents were serious.

Shannon Dowling, a spokesperson for the City of Greater Sudbury, said 21 trucks were out Friday morning to clear the city's main collector roads

“It is a little unusual to have a storm like this at this time of year,” Dowling said. “Our winter control program doesn't officially start until tomorrow.”

Some city buses were delayed Friday morning, but Dowling said none of the delays were major.

At around 8:40 a.m., a bus was stalled at the intersection of Wellington Heights and Hyland Drive, near Wembley Drive.