(CCNMatthews) October may be the first full month of fall, but Old Man Winter struck hard and early. Some Ontario communities are still reeling from the one-two punch they experienced that month.
On Oct. 12, the snow started falling in Fort Erie and didn't
stop until 30 centimetres had been dumped in one day.
 (Other communities near Fort Erie did not receive any snow at all.) Not only was this a single-day record for snowfall for October for Fort Erie, it was also a monthly record there for October.
The other noteworthy snowfall was in North Bay. Their snowfall
season also started Oct. 12, but it continued for two more
days, resulting in a total accumulation of 38.3 centimetres.
This was the earliest a snowfall of this magnitude had ever
been recorded there, but to top it off the snow continued to
pummel North Bay. The last weekend of the month, another 33
centimetres was recorded. The first snowfall almost broke the
previous monthly record amount for North Bay, but with all the
additional snow the records have been rewritten a few times
over. As well, during the last two days of the month, a
disturbance over northwestern Ontario dumped enough snow on Red
Lake to surpass its previous snowfall record for October, set
in 2001.
Rainfall also was noteworthy in October. Locations in southern
and eastern Ontario received so much rain that the previous
rainfall records set back in 1954, with Hurricane Hazel, and in
1955, with Hurricane Katie, were threatened.
 October 2006 was the second wettest October ever for Trenton, North Bay and Wiarton, the third wettest ever in London and the fourth wettest historically in Toronto.
Despite perceptions that October was a cold month, temperatures
were  near normal or slightly below normal across the
province. The month felt colder due to the fact that gusty
winds often accompanied the below-normal temperatures.
In many locations, it felt like Mother Nature decided to skip a
month and head right into November. As prevously mentioned,
unprecedented amounts of lake-effect snow caused major
disruptions to communities along the southern tier of the
Niagara Peninsula from the afternoon hours of Oct. 12 into
midday on Oct. 13. The unseasonably cold air that moved over
Lake Erie and caused the historic snowfall amounts to portions
of the Niagara Peninsula was driven southward by a low pressure
system north of Lake Superior. This large low pressure system
entered from Manitoba on Oct. 10 and continued to spin over
areas to the north of Lake Nipigon until Oct. 14, when it
finally moved off to the northeast. Snow fell steadily from
Oct. 10-14 over communities to the north of Lake Nipigon in
association with this low.
Another intense low pressure system moved through southern and
central Ontario Oct. 28, bringing with it heavy, wet snow to
locations in the Parry Sound district, portions of Algonquin
Park and northward into the Sudbury and North Bay areas.
Gusty west-to-northwest winds followed on the heels of this low
pressure system for a good portion of Oct. 29, causing downed
trees and some power disruptions in southern Ontario. A number
of locations experienced wind gusts in the 70-90 kph. Work has
also been continuing in the studies of the two severe weather
events in Ontario this summer, the storms of July 17 and Aug.
2. Review of eyewitness accounts, photographs and radar imagery
has led to the confirmation of a 10th tornado on Aug. 2 in the
Myers Cave area in Eastern Ontario. This brings the number of
tornadoes this season in Ontario to 19. During an average
season, Ontario experiences 14 tornadoes.
