Record setting 2026 Toronto Snowfall Street Photography

I’ve lived in Toronto my whole life (well, except for a couple of years in Hamilton, but we’ll just ignore that), and I have never seen a snowfall like the one we saw on January 25th 2026.

Now many people know me as an event photographer in Toronto, but if you’ve followed me on my Instagram or Facebook pages (now also Threads) for the last 10 years plus, you know that street photography is my thing, and adverse and extreme weather conditions are some of my favorite times to be out with my camera capturing street scenes.

While the final results are almost always worth it, there’s no doubt that the adventure is always not only a challenge on myself, and my own “durability” and stamina, but also my equipment. Did you know that you can fog up the inside of a viewfinder on a DSLR? I’ve learned that with my D750. Or that in extremely cold temperatures the digital LCD viewfinder and back screen will start to freeze up and lag, and that it takes about 5 minutes of warming up from -25 degrees Celsius to start acting normally? Again, things you learn when you’re out and about in extremely cold weather. Thankfully, as long as you’re dressed for the weather, and you have proper equipment that’s weather sealed, it just boils down to “how long can you walk through snowy conditions carrying equipment and taking photos?” and for me, it’s hours.

On Sunday my friend and fellow Toronto photographer, Gary Cummins, messaged me to see if I wanted to head out and capture the storm like the “good ol days” when we’d meet up in a crew and spend hours walking through the city at night snapping photos, so it was a no-brainer and I jumped at the offer.

We met up at the Bloor UP station since it had been snowing all day and wreaking havoc on the subway which lead to closures and delays throughout the system, but the UP Express was running, albeit on a 30 minute schedule as opposed to the usual 15. The UP Station was just the start of the adventure, the wildly blowing snow causing whiteouts on the well-lit platforms made for a few great shots as we waited for out ride downtown.

We got to Union Station for just before 7pm, the station was relatively quiet, but it was a Sunday which is usually a quieter day downtown, however I’m sure the host of delays and train cancellations is what kept many at home. Once we exited the station we were in a winter wonderland. Visibility was reduced to about a block in each direction, people were dragging their luggage on top of and through the snow, fine icy snow blasting you in the face, a taxi driver who waits outside his car and asks “Taxi?” to which I reply “no, man, I’m here for this”.

Me, in my element. Photo: Gary Cummins

The snow was everywhere, and at times fairly deep. Single track paths carved by the previous pedestrians was often the only way to traverse a sidewalk, otherwise you were best walking on the road, it all but buried the entirety of the tires on the Bixie rental bikes that were stacked in their racks, and buried within a snowdrift built up from the snow that had been non-stop falling for about 10 hours. There were at least two points where the wind and snow blew so hard I had to lift my camera and look through the viewfinder just to see what was going on because if I opened my eyes otherwise they’d get blasted with fine icy snow. I’d never seen anything like it in all my years.

We came up with a plan, we decided to head east along Front St to Bay St, up Bay St to Richmond St or Adelaide St and then east to Yonge St, from there we’d head north, check out a few spot we’d known about from previous stormy adventures, pop into Yonge Dundas Square, and then continue west along Dundas to Baldwin Village, and continue west on Baldwin to Spadina at which point we’d decide what to do from there. It was certainly a heck of a trip we planned,  but we were dressed for the occasion and it’d been some time since either of us had been out for a storm, and so off we went.

Now I won’t bore you with a further play by play of the night, the 20 minute turned 1.5 hours to get home, the gas leak that closed College St, or any of that, I think the pictures speak for themselves, so with that I’ll leave you with the following collection of some of my favorite images from Sunday night’s wild snowstorm.

Lastly, I also want to send a shout out to all the First Responders in Toronto who were out navigating those roads to respond to calls, the maintenance crews who were out there trying their best to keep the roads and sidewalks clear, and last but not least, the food delivery folks I saw out there on two wheels getting people their orders in some treacherous conditions.

If you’re interested in prints, publishing, or licensing some of these images, feel free to contact me to discuss. Otherwise, Thanks for stopping by to check out my photos, I hope you liked them, feel free to share this post, follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Threads for more of my cityscapes and street photography.