Monday’s storm dumped most snow on Mississauga in a single day since 1944

The 45cm of snow dumped on many parts of Mississauga on Monday was the most the area has received in a single day since 1944, when the city was known as Toronto Township.

In describing the winter storm that slammed Mississauga and the rest of southern Ontario as a near-record event in the city in terms of snowfall, Mayor Bonnie Crombie praised Mississauga winter maintenance crews for their “round-the-clock” efforts in clearing the snow from major and secondary roads.

“It was truly an all-hands-on-deck effort,” Crombie said this morning, noting no major roads were closed due to the historic storm and only several MiWay buses became stuck in snow.

Still, numerous residents across the city became stranded in their homes by huge windrows of hard, chunky snow and ice that blocked many driveways and residential courts.

They flooded City councillors with calls and emails on Tuesday and Wednesday wanting to know when the snow would be cleared.

Snowbanks are high after the snowstorm this week and can impact visibility

🚗Drivers – Watch for pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles when entering and exiting driveways or roadways pic.twitter.com/LsotRTM38u

— City of Mississauga (@citymississauga) January 20, 2022

Windrows are the collections of snow left at the bottom of driveways–and sometimes at the entrance to streets and courts–after snow plows clear the main part of the street.

The situation prompted Mississauga City council to pass an emergency motion on Wednesday directing snow plows to not only prioritize clearing the main roads in the wake of a second snowfall on Tuesday night, but to quickly get to the secondary roads in residential neighbourhoods as well.

All roads were reportedly cleared by last night, Crombie reported.

While our winter crews have been working around the clock to clear neighbourhoods, some areas are getting touch ups such as bus stops, main sidewalks, on-street bike lanes, residential streets – there’s a lot of snow to move!

If your street isn't cleared yet, kindly call 311. pic.twitter.com/t9840jZZud

— City of Mississauga (@citymississauga) January 20, 2022

Mickey Frost, the City’s director of works operations and maintenance, said Mississauga deployed hundreds of snow-clearing vehicles in the wake of the major winter blast.

He noted that while there were some challenges, winter maintenance crews performed well.

Frost added that staff will do a “deep dive” into the City’s response and clean-up efforts to see what, if anything, can be improved upon in future.

Tuesday evening’s snowfall made matters worse. While it was a relatively small snowfall, it was enough to pull snow plows from neighbourhood roads and streets back to the city’s major routes.

Ward 3 Councillor Chris Fonseca, who tabled the emergency motion, said many residents were “just beside themselves” and couldn’t get out of their homes or their streets.

Geoff Wright, the City’s commissioner of transportation and works, described the winter storm as “an extraordinary event” and said crews worked round the clock to clear the snow.