Hamilton winter storm updates: Schools, libraries close as snow starts to blanket city

As Hamilton hunkers down for the first major winter storm of the season, several services and organizations have opted to close their doors for the day.

The Hamilton Public Library announced Friday morning that all of its branches would be closed for the day. All Bookmobile visits, extended access and study galls have also been cancelled. Phone, email and chat services remain available, according to a tweet.

Hamilton's public and Catholic schools are also closed. Child care centres within the boards are likewise shuttered, as are all schools in the Halton region and at both the Grand Erie District and Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District school boards.

At the post-secondary level, all Mohawk College campuses are closed and McMaster University was shut down as of 7 a.m.

The Aboriginal Health Centre will be providing virtual services on Friday and Saturday due to the storm.

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum has closed Friday due to inclement weather.

All YMCA locations in Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford will be closing at 2 p.m. Friday and all programming is cancelled. The pool at both the downtown Hamilton and Laurier Brantford locations are also closed. The Les Chater pool will close at noon.

The Royal Botanical Garden has closed the RBG Centre, Hendrie Park and the Rock Garden today due to the extreme weather.

Winter storm warning in place

Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for the city, saying the storm is expected today and into Saturday.

Snow has already started falling in Hamilton, with accumulations of 5 to 15 cm expected by Saturday morning. The agency is also predicting wind gusts of 100 to 110 km/h resulting in widespread blowing snow which will reduce visibility to near zero at times, with wind chill values into the -20s C. Utility outages are possible, as is flash freezing which will produce slippery roads and sidewalks.

The national weather agency is recommending that travel should be avoided or postponed, and plan ahead if you've got more holiday shopping to do as there will be reduced visibility on the roads due to blowing snow as well as potential icy conditions.

The City of Hamilton issued a cold weather alert for Friday, saying some recreation centres will open as warming centres during regular business hours, however libraries will not be available for warming.

Municipal weather warnings are issued when temperatures are expected to hit lows of -15 C or -20 C with the wind chill.

City-run recreation centres that are operating as warming centres include:

• Ancaster Rotary Centre at 385 Jerseyville Rd. W.

• Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre at 876 Cannon St. E.

• Central Memorial Rec Centre at 93 West Ave. S.

• Dalewood Recreation Centre at 1150 Main St. W.

• Dominic Agostino Riverdale Community Centre at 150 Violet Dr.

• Dundas Lions Memorial Community Centre at 10 Market St. S.

• Huntington Park Recreation Centre at 87 Brentwood Dr.

• Norman Pinky" Lewis Recreation Centre at 192 Wentworth St. N.

• Sackville Hill Senior Centre at 780 Upper Wentworth St.

• Stoney Creek Recreation Centre at 45 King St. W.

• Valley Park Community Centre at 970 Paramount Dr.

• Westmount Recreation Centre at 35 Lynbrook Dr.

Alectra Utilities is reporting an outage stretching Hunter Street West to Robinson Street from Pearl Street South to James Street South has left at least 498 buildings in the dark. Power is expected to be restored by 4:30 p.m.

-With files from Delaney Caulfield

Fallon Hewitt is a reporter at The Spectator. fhewitt@thespec.com