Winter’s first blast drops 10 cm of snow, cancels flights at Canada’s busiest airport

Winter’s first blast of late 2025 dropped nearly 10 centimetres of snow on Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga on Sunday, and it’s still snowing Monday morning as work crews at Canada’s biggest and busiest airport are busy keeping the runways clear.

Pearson officials said the airport received 9.8 cm of snow on Sunday and with lake-effect snow possible on Monday, “… our teams on the airfield are ready to keep runways clear and planes moving safely if the snow begins to accumulate.”

The first significant snowfall of the season led to hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at Pearson on Sunday. According to FlightAware.com, a website that tracks real-time flight data, the airport had reported 232 flight delays and 57 cancellations as of 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

At around 10 a.m. Monday, officials at Pearson reported “snowflakes are still falling” and that the airport’s Airfield Maintenance team was busy clearing the tarmac of snow (see video below).

Snow flakes are still falling at the airport after nearly 10 cm of snow was recorded over the last 24 hours at Toronto Pearson. ❄️

Check out this timelpase taken this morning showing our Airfield Manitenance team clearing snow from an apron. pic.twitter.com/N948CIBj2w

— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) November 10, 2025

Pearson officials also noted that due to the snow and cold weather — temperatures were “hovering around -4 C” early Monday morning — crews were busy de-icing aircraft as well on Sunday and into Monday.

They said more than 400 planes on Sunday passed through the airport’s de-icing facility, the largest centralized de-icing facility of any airport in the world, according to Pearson.

And as of mid-morning on Monday, “our Central De-icing Facility is already busy, with several aircraft heading over for a spray before departure,” Pearson officials said in a post to social media.

Airport officials said last winter that 53 pieces of specialized equipment — 46 de-icing trucks, four Glycol (antifreeze) recovery vehicles, three underwing de-icers — comprise Pearson’s centralized de-icing facility, the largest at any airport around the globe.

During winter 2023-24, some 15,000 aircraft were de-iced at Pearson prior to takeoff, airport officials said last year, adding the average de-icing time was four minutes, 30 seconds per plane.

In addition to the de-icing vehicles, Pearson had 44 snowplows at its disposal last winter and numerous other pieces of winter maintenance equipment at the ready when needed.

In the week ahead, southern Ontario is expected to see chilly temperatures with some snow and rain in the mix.

It’s a cold, wintry morning on the airfield with temperatures hovering around -4°C.

Our Central Deicing Facility is already busy, with several aircraft heading over for a spray before departure.

Yesterday’s first blast of winter brought 9.8 cm of snow to the airport, with more… pic.twitter.com/em6I0V5HNz

— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) November 10, 2025