What can Sudbury can expect weather-wise on New Year’s Eve?

Heavy snow fell in Sudbury Tuesday night, leaving many digging out Wednesday morning.Wednesday morning many Sudburians had to clear their vehicles of snow following Tuesday's storm. (Amanda Hicks/CTV News Northern Ontario)The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said officers responded to multiple accidents Wednesday due to road conditions.

“This morning we responded to five accidents, one involving a tractor-trailer that slid into a ditch due to the weather conditions,” said Constable Rob Lewis with the Nipissing-West OPP.

Northern Ontario has been hit with three storms in the past two weeks, including the significant snow storm over Christmas weekend that affected travel for many.

Now, the weather is getting to swing in the opposite direction by the New Year.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says that an air mass from the Gulf of Mexico will bring a stint of milder weather to the region, with temperatures expected to reach 7°C by Friday.

Gerald Cheng, a meteorologist with ECCC, told CTV News these kinds of fluctuations aren’t unusual. However, he says we should be prepared when the weather switches from cold conditions to milder conditions.

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“Especially this weekend, we’ll see it’s bringing north a lot of that warmth to northern Ontario, so it really has to do with the pattern of the day,” Cheng said.

“We should be prepared for these kind of fluctuations because they do happen. We’ve seen them before in previous winters.”

Cheng said he believes, overall, that this winter will bring milder temperatures in Sudbury, but more winter weather is to be expected.

“We get these big snow events followed by rain events and so we need to be prepared,” he said.

“In the winter time we don’t just get snow, we get all kinds of things like ice pellets, freezing rain and even rain and certainly we’ll continue to monitor what the weather the bring.”

The OPP’s message is to drive according to road conditions.

“Slow down, take your time, keep your distance, allow the road crews to do the work they’re doing,” Lewis said.

Temperatures are expected to dip back down within the next two weeks.