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Ice chunks fall from world's tallest structure
Police forced to close roads near Toronto's famous CN Tower

Canada’s iconic CN Tower was casting an unwelcome shadow over residents and motorists Monday as the risk of falling chunks of ice forced police to close a major highway and several downtown streets at the foot of the world’s tallest free-standing structure.

The morning commute was paralyzed as police closed a stretch of the Gardiner Expressway and several streets in the city’s financial district after several pieces of ice — including a thick slab the size of a tabletop — were ripped from the tower by strong winds.

CN Tower officials said they haven’t seen such icy buildup on the looming tourist attraction since it first opened for business in 1976.

"We’ve maintained the building for 30 years and not had to deal with a situation quite like this," said spokeswoman Irene Knight.

"In the past there has been ice, but it’s not been as extreme as what we have been dealing with in the recent days."

Knight blamed the circumstances on a combination of freezing rain, mild temperatures and high winds in recent weeks.

Chunks of ice began to fall off the tower last Friday after a fierce winter storm pounded the city with snow and freezing rain, followed immediately by mild temperatures. No injuries have been reported, but one vehicle — a taxicab — was damaged by the falling ice.

The basic laws of physics say that the thick sheets of ice falling from near the top of the 553-metre structure could reach startling speeds before they hit bottom, said Carl Kumadaras, a physics professor at Ryerson University in Toronto.

"In the worst-case scenario, the ice can reach speeds up to 360 kilometres an hour, if it falls from 400 metres and if you don’t account for wind resistance," he said.

"But the speed can vary a lot; if you take two identical pieces of ice and you drop them, some could fall at 100 km/h and some could fall at 10 km/h, depending on how it falls."

Knight said that while the tower does have equipment to prevent ice from building up on some parts of the tower, sheets of ice that have formed at the 350-metre level have proven difficult to reach.

"We do have systems in place on our roof to melt the ice, but the high winds have made it even more difficult for us to do anything," she said.

"In the short term, we are trying to be diligent to monitor to make sure people are safe, but in the long term we will certainly be proactive to find ways to deal with this situation. It’s definitely on our priority list now."

A stretch of King Street just west of the intersection of King and Bay — widely considered the centre of Canada’s financial district — remained closed Monday for fear of ice falling from the side of the 300-metre First Canadian Place, considered Canada’s tallest skyscraper.

Toronto police say the highway and city streets would remain closed throughout the day or until the areas below both buildings were deemed safe.

"We are looking at the situation hour by hour," said Staff Sgt. Greg Cole. "The concern is that when we think things are OK, a sheet of ice flies down," he said.

"It’s inconvenient, and we know that, but we’d rather it be inconvenient than have somebody hurt."

Strongest snowstorm in half century
White stuff accumulates to 6 1/2 feet in Shanghai, China

 THE strongest March snowstorm to hit northeast China's Liaoning Province in 56 years has left at least one person dead and seven injured after the roof of an agricultural trade building collapsed under the weight of the snow, local sources said.

Three arched ceilings of the Minglian Agricultural Trade Building in Huanggu District, in the provincial capital of Shenyang, collapsed at noon yesterday, burying about 20 stall owners and customers, said a witness.

Beginning Saturday night, rain and snow has fallen continually in most parts of Liaoning, with reported precipitations of 36 millimeters in Shenyang, 56mm in Dalian and 68mm in Dandong, the Shenyang Meteorological Observatory reported.

Snow piled up two meters high in some areas, it said.

The snowstorm forced Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang to close at 8am yesterday.

By 4pm, more than 100 flights had been canceled and over 1,000 passengers were stranded at the airport, which was hoping to reopen today.

Eleven expressways in Liaoning were closed.

Classes were suspended for today for 900,000 primary and middle school students in Shenyang.

More moderate rain and snow hit most parts of north China on Saturday and yesterday, disrupting air and highway travel in these areas.

At Beijing Capital International Airport, more than 200 flights were delayed by 1pm yesterday due to snowfall, airport sources said.

That followed heavy rain on Saturday, which surpassed the total rainfall in the capital in the past three months, said Guo Hu, director of the Beijing Meteorological Observatory.

In Tianjin, Binhai International Airport was closed at 7am yesterday and more than 20 flights have been delayed, airport sources said.

Expressways through the city were also shut down. The city reported 25 to 32 millimeters of rain and snow by yesterday morning.

In Erdos city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which saw a blizzard on Saturday with a maximum snowfall of up to 20 centimeters, about 40,000 passengers and 10,000 drivers were stranded.

The Baita Airport in Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, had to be closed between 6pm on Saturday and 6am yesterday.

Toronto: February coldest in 28 years
5th-most frigid since 1937 when weather records 1st kept

If you thought February was particularly cold, you were right.

Frigid conditions made the month the coldest February in 28 years, according to Environment Canada’s senior climatologist David Phillips.

Not since 1979 has February dished up such bone-rattling conditions.

The average temperature was -8.4C, which was three degrees colder than normal.

That also made it the fifth coldest February since 1937 when weather records were first kept at what is now Pearson International Airport.

It followed an unusually mild January.

The month was also distinguished by a lack of rain.

Usually in Feburary, the temperature rises enough that we get some rain.

However, this was the first February since 1978 and only the second ever when we didn’t get one drop of rain.

"This was winter at its worst," Phillips said.

Today’s weather will be cold, but there is the promise of spring around the corner.

Environment Canada is predicting temperatures will rise to 3C by Friday.

And although we have had snowfalls right through May in some years, the law of averages suggests we may have had our last snowstorm of the season.

In the months of March, April and May, there is only a 21 per cent chance of any snow falling, according to Phillips.

Environment Canada is also calling for normal temperatures through March, April and May.

Massachusetts: Coldest March day since 1950
At 11 a.m. it was 3 degrees above zero with wind child of 20 degrees below

A meteorologist in the Taunton office of the National Weather Service today confirmed what anybody walking outside quicky realizes, which is, it is about as cold as it can be for the month of March.

At 11 a.m. it was 3 degrees above zero with a wind child of about 20 degrees below zero, Meteorologist William Simpson said.

The temperature at midnight was 16 degrees which is the March 6 record for the lowest maximum temperature for the date, according to Mr. Simpson.

The record low maximum temerature for the month of March is 10 degrees, set on March 3, 1950. With a high temperature of 9 degrees predicted for the rest of the day, today will rival that record even though it won't show in the record book because the high temperature was recorded at midnight.

"Certainly, today is the coldest March day since 1950," Mr. Simpson said.