Eastern Canada, mostly in the Quebec and Maritimes regions, has been struck by the first hard winter storm following the recent tornado and heavy storms in Texas, US.

Meteorologists have declared that the sudden winter storm is somehow connected to the changing climatic conditions in Texas over the weekend, which caused a heavy storm and tornado strike and claimed the lives of around 11 people in the Dallas region. The Quebec region was first hit by the full impact of winter, while the Maritime provinces were struck hard within the week.

Because of the expected 15 to 40 centimetres of snow in southern Quebec by Tuesday evening, Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport announced delays in the flights. The airport urged passengers to check the status of their flights prior to arrival. Along with the interrupted flight schedules, Canada also faced transportation disruption on the roads because of the heavy winter storm.

Environment Canada experts said that an intense low pressure system from Texas was posing a hazard on the Great Lakes area, leading to such drastic changes in weather in southern Ontario and further to the east. A snowfall warning has been issued in several regions like Fredericton and Southern York County, Saint John County, etc., while Clyde River is expected to have "extreme cold" weather.

In addition to Montreal’s airport, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport have also urged its passengers to keep on checking their flight’s status. The airport also mentioned that Montreal and Ottawa were affected by the weather and hence to expect delayed and/or cancelled several flights.

Around 300 road accidents have been reported in the Toronto region since Monday due to the icy road conditions. Environment Canada therefore requests Quebec residents to not to drive out their cars as 30 to 40 centimetres of snowfall is expected to hit the region by the end of Tuesday.

Barrie MacKinnon, meteorologist at Environment Canada, said that the weather system followed by Cape Cod in Massachusetts was the reason behind the heavy storm in eastern Canadian region, CBC News reported. It was expected to bring 25 centimetres of snow to Nova Scotia and southeastern New Brunswick later Tuesday.

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