The news likes to hype things up. That was certainly not the first full shut down in 20 years, nor was it the first time university classes were cancelled for a snow day in 20 years.
There was already 5-15 cm on the ground where I am from the previous January 15th storm and light snow in the days after, I got about 25-30 cm more today. The person reporting 80 cm on St. Clair probably took the highest snow drift they could find, which is not the average for their neighbourhood, much less the city.
For some areas sure, but the city average is not going to be over half a meter of snow. I'd bet it'd be closer to 30 cm. Remember everyone, there was already snow accumulated from before this storm.
Chart and data: Snowfall - Daily data (2 weeks) for Toronto for Toronto, Ontario, Canada
toronto.weatherstats.ca
I hate to point out the obvious, but you know what lines and systems had no problem? The fully underground Line 4 Sheppard and the Montreal Metro. Maybe the Quebecois were onto something when they built their metro entirely underground. Then again, Montreal get's a lot more snow. Plus the snow sticks around due to lower temps.
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