Massive weekend snowstorm spans more than 2500 km

This weekend's snow system has our attention nationwide.

The next 24 to 48 hours will see a far reaching system that will spread heavy snowfall from southern Manitoba to Ontario and southern Quebec, and through into Baltimore as well. A snow swath distance totaling more than 2500 km.

Related weather warnings and advisories span all three Canadian provinces, with the city of Winnipeg expected to get up to 15 cm of snow, and 10-20+ cm expected across parts of Ontario and Quebec this weekend.

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WHAT'S RESPONSIBLE?

"A low pressure system tracking across the U.S. central plains and a trough extending from this system into the southern Prairies is what will spread heavy snowfall across southern Manitoba and into northwestern Ontario later Friday through Saturday," says Weather Network meteorologist Nadine Hinds-Powell.

As the low then tracks toward the Great Lakes on Saturday, heavy snowfall will push all the way from northeastern Ontario, through central sections of the province and right across the south from Windsor to Ottawa as well.

By Saturday evening, this system will be spreading snowfall simultaneously from Dryden, Ontario to Drummondville, Quebec, still with flurries impacting southern Manitoba as well.

SYSTEM TRACKS ACROSS THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, BRINGS SNOW TO EVERY PROVINCE

"One reason why we’re seeing such widespread heavy snowfall totals is that this system is drawing on moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, while at the same time capalizing on the extreme cold temperatures that have been gripping the Prairies over the last week," Hinds-Powell explains.

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Although southern Ontario has not been as cold as of late, some of that extreme cold spread southward into the region early Friday, just in time to deliver the most significant snowfall event since early December.

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