Snowfall warnings Friday for Kingston, Belleville areas CBC News

Forecasters expect a snowy start to the first weekend of spring in communities south of Ottawa.

Environment Canada has a snowfall warning for areas along the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario from Mallorytown west to Trenton and all the way to Hamilton.

Nearly 15 centimetres of snow should start falling Friday around noon, be at its heaviest late in the afternoon and taper off at night.

A special weather statement, two steps below a warning (and one below a watch) covers communities immediately to the to the north and east of the warning such as Cornwall, Tweed and Westport.

Five to 10 centimetres of snow is forecast there beginning this afternoon or evening.

Ottawa-Gatineau has no alerts, with about four centimetres in Ottawa's outlook on Friday night and Saturday.

The region, like the country as a whole, just finished a very warm winter with the impacts of human-powered climate change and El Niño stacking atop each other.

It was also a dry one in eastern Ontario and western Quebec: 121.7 millimetres of precipitation from Dec. 21 to March 21 in Ottawa compared to 248.6 millimetres the previous winter, which was wetter than the historic normal.

Next week's Ottawa forecast has daytime highs at or above seasonal norms again.