Major winter storm watch issued for southern Ontario

A major storm heading for Toronto is expected to shower the city and southern Ontario with snow, ice pellets and freezing rain starting Monday evening.

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Environment Canada issued a major winter storm warning Sunday afternoon, announcing that a weather system from Texas will send high winds and precipitation to Toronto by Monday night, running into Tuesday morning.

About 15 centimetres of snow and iceshould fall before ittapers off into drizzle laterTuesday, according to the alert.

High windswith gusts of up to 80 km/h will batter the area, swirling snow and ice and affecting driving conditions from Monday evening on, the forecast says.

Visibility will drop to near zero and roads are expected to be covered with ice.

The weather system is expected to affect all of southern Ontario, with warnings issued for snow and ice across the province. Ottawa will likely behit the worst, with the forecast calling forbetween 20 and 30 centimetres of snow.