Too cold for YYZ workers

[av8ts]

GTAA spokeswoman Shereen Daghstani said the airport was prepared but it opted for a ground stop to protect workers from the cold.

Read more: http://www.cp24.com/weather/extreme-col ... z2pjvJdxoS

Really they shutdown Canada's busiest airport when the temperature hit -24. -39 windchill

[pdw]

It was the 50mph winds associated with it at midnight ... and going even lower ... to -26 C by early morning. To the south the other side of Lake Ontario where we are ... same thing ... but here it NEVER gets as cold as what it did last night.

That's more like -40 or -50 at YYZ ... it only gets down to that kind of cold there about every other year. Better safe than sorry.

[av8ts]

http://weather.gc.ca/trends_table/pages ... ric_e.html

According to Environment Canada the low was -24 hit at 5am with a peak gust of 53kph (33mph) at 7am.

[av8ts]

Its called a "polar vortex". I'm sure pdw came up with that term last year when talking about an incident.

[MrWings]

It's official. TO is no longer Canadian. Might as well bring in the Buffalo Bills now.

Embarassing.

[Bede]

Pathetic. Waited 4 hrs for a gate last night. Yes, TO is cold, but no colder than YWG, YEG, YMM, YZF, YYC, YQT, YYT, YQB, etc. get on a regular basis. Wimps!

[pdw]

Before and after midnight ... 77km (gusts), a record for CYYZ with - 25 C temperature forecast.

[tdp19]

Pathetic. Waited 4 hrs for a gate last night. Yes, TO is cold, but no colder than YWG, YEG, YMM, YZF, YYC, YQT, YYT, YQB, etc. get on a regular basis. Wimps!

Agreed, what a joke! My girlfriends flt was delayed 7 hours for this nonsense. Ywg, yyc, yeg, zbf to name a few are like that on a daily basis. Glad i wasn't working.

[Dockjock]

Just think of the competitive advantage you would reap if you were willing to outfit your rampies in severe cold weather gear. Everyone else is warming up inside while your guys, at say $500 each, are still out working. I can't believe we are not prepared for this.

[BKerns]

This is what happens when you build up a situation to make it seem so disastrous. People live to that expectation. When you read the news "deadly cold coming" etc, then people live to this expectation. Everyone makes excuses and becomes lazy.
If you got up and the news said just another canadian winter day, and everyone suited up, put a little more umph into their step you know, and figure out to start the car a little early, use a little common sense, then pearson would not have to feel like its on lockdown. Maybe the bags would be 5 min late, but we would not see 7 hour delays in the inbound baggage.
Give people the opportunity to make an excuse and they will!

[indieadventurer]

Wonder who the "considers Muskoka northern Ontario, Torontoooo! born snob and hey we're a world class city!" group of GTAA employee made this call what a joke

[Colonel Sanders]

Are they going to call out the army again?

[pdw]

In Toronto you don't see block heater ports, since it seldom chills that far down to require them. Many passengers found their cars would not start.

The airport is normally void of air traffic anyway in the wee hours, so it appears it was mainly an issue of getting everything moving again after 5am and -24C with that windchill of 39.6 C ... ie the "equipment issues". The workers got a break in the process ...

[corytrevor]

Wind chill has no effect on equipment. It's funny how all the equipment works ok in the rest of Canada on a normal -30 degree night.

[esp803]

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh Toronto... You think you are the Canadian New York... well you are now wrong on both counts. For Shame! Over the last month there's been more then a dozen days I'd kill for -24 with howling winds in YWG...

E

[Brown Bear]

-24 would feel pretty pleasant about now... Pussies!

[Magnetron]

It was nice in YWG today! A balmy -22!
http://weather.gc.ca/trends_table/pages ... ric_e.html

[sportingrifle]

I don't really admire Buffalo Airway's operation but I find it ironic that an airport with almost unlimited resources (and associated costs), that is serviced by sophisticated modern turbine airplanes, shuts down in warmer temperatures than that which Joe operates radial engines and 2nd hand courier trucks! As a pilot who operates out of YYZ, it is humiliating to be involved in. But then this is the city where the majority of the citizens lost food during a power outage in sub-freezing weather. God help them all if something really catastrophic ever happened.

[arctic_slim]

I guess since the city doesn't see temperatures like that on a regular basis, it's understandable. Laughable but understandable. Maybe they need to start hiring some rampies that have experience working in the north.

I remember being out on the ramp (up north) and going into the walk in freezer to warm up. I could take my jacket and face mask off and enjoy a few minutes of the freezer. It actually felt good to sit in there for a few minutes to warm up before going out on the ramp again. But up there you get used to it I suppose.

[A346Dude]

I'm embarrassed to live anywhere near YYZ. What a joke, a ground stop for cold temperatures.

At least we kept things running at YHM with much poorer runway conditions.