http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/TG1420.html
The rest of Canada chuckles as snowsteria hits Toronto amid snowmageddon fears
TORONTO - Snow big deal. The Snowtorious B.I.G. Snowmageddon. Snow kidding.
Snowsteria seemed to take hold in Toronto on Wednesday amid an Environment Canada prediction of a winter walloping that sent people in and around Canada's largest city scurrying like groundhogs for their burrows.
Schools declared a snow day. Workers stayed home or holed up in hotels. Normally frenetic rush-hour streets and commuter trains took on a ho-hum weekend feel amid the question: Snow what?
Snow big deal, as it turned out. Canadian Forces remained safely in their barracks.
No snow day for the blogosphere.
"There is hardly any snow on the ground and they close the schools?!" exclaimed one incredulous commenter under a lengthy list of closures on a news website.
"This once again is hyped up by all the news media . . . Workers and teachers find excuses to stay home. Parent scrambling to find alternative. Someone need to be responsible for this!"
Environment Canada was making no apologies for its predictions, gamely pointing out that some areas of southern Ontario, if not Toronto, did experience blizzard-like conditions for a while.
"It was handled with the best information we had at the time," said spokesman Geoff Coulson.
"It didn't pan out exactly as forecast but the ongoing challenge for us will be to do the best job we can at trying to describe the risks involved in coming weather systems."
Less than 10 centimetres of the predicted maximum 30 fell on the city by mid-afternoon Wednesday.
As some parents grumbled, Toronto's public school board found itself defending its decision to declare its first snow day since former mayor Mel Lastman called in the army to start digging the city out in January 1999.
"I'm just kind of living in the moment and trying to do what's good based on the information that I have," education director Chris Spence said. "It just felt that this was the right decision."
Commuter rail service GO Transit reported a "smooth" rush-hour service, which operated on an adjusted winter schedule that largely involved having express trains make additional stops.
The changed schedule came in response to Environment Canada's forecasts and the desire to alert passengers ahead of time, said spokeswoman Vanessa Thomas.
"The decision is based on all the severe winter weather warnings," Thomas said.
At the country's busiest airport, about 340 of the normally scheduled 1,200 flights were called off Wednesday — one of the biggest days for cancellations at Pearson International Airport this winter.
Jim Montpetit, 49, said he understood the cancellation of his Tuesday night flight to Windsor, Ont., but cancelling three more flights Wednesday morning was too much.
"There's no snow down here, there's no snow down in Windsor," he said.
Most travellers had already decided to stay home instead of going to the airport, said Scott Armstrong of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority.
"I don't think a lot of people were surprised by this storm," Armstrong said.
"Arm-chair quarterbacking is one thing. The airlines make their decisions on cancellations and they have their business reasons to do so. Whether it's too much or too little, I don't know."
Snow surprises, perhaps, but many in the greater Toronto area were still left wondering what all the fuss was about.
Angela Aulino, a corporate clerk working in the city's downtown, specially got up early to clear the snow, only to find there wasn't that much to shovel.
"I thought it was going to be worse because of what they were saying," Aulino said.
Others warmed themselves by blaming the media.
"Why does the news always make mountains out of molehills?" one commenter wrote online.
And, in keeping with another favourite theme, many commentators delighted in pointing out why Canadians love Toronto.
It's the humour.
"Once again the Centre of the Universe has hijacked the airwaves to declare Snowmageddon only to be met with a whimper," said one online poster.
"And you ask why you're Canada's laughing stock? Anyway, we'll keep you around for entertainment value."
Snow joke.
.
