Toronto’s first cold snap of the season will come to an end early next week but another bitterly cold weekend is ahead.
The Friday morning temperature is -8 C, although it may feel closer to -13 with the wind chill. Environment Canada is forecasting a mainly cloudy day with clear breaks into the evening, when temperatures are expected to drop from -12 C to -14 C overnight.
The cloudy forecast is expected to continue into Saturday morning, with the day beginning at a brisk -14 C. By the afternoon, temperatures should warm to -9 C, staying at that temperature into the evening, with sunny breaks throughout the day. It will feel like -17.
It will really start to warm up by Sunday, with a mainly sunny forecast of -2 C feeling like -6 with the wind chill.
While early next week will still have strong wind chill to make it feel like temperatures are as cold as - 6, the temperature will actually warm up to 0 C and remain in the positives going forward.
Aside from a chance of snow on Tuesday and mixed precipitation on Friday, the week ahead is expected to be mainly cloudy, hovering between 0 C and 4 C.
“The end of the cold snap is just around the corner, and we’ll see the start of the warm-up as early as Sunday,” CP24's Eden Debebe said. “From there, temperatures will continue to warm through the work week until we hit a mild high of 5 C on Wednesday.”
The last week of sub-zero temperatures was brought in by a storm that hit southwestern Ontario on Friday.
Speaking with CTV News last week, CP24 meteorologist Bill Coulter said that it was going to be a ‘game changer’ for temperature.
“It stands as the floodgates, behind which bitterly cold air will spill into the region for Sunday and much of the next workweek. We’ll have to bundle up for the coldest weather yet of this cold weather season after this early weekend blast of snow and mix.”
The blast of colder weather caused the City of Toronto to open more warming shelters for those who are experiencing homelessness, and activate some locations for the first time.
A city spokesperson said that all six sites reached “full capacity” on Wednesday, when the weather felt like -20 with the wind chill. The spokesperson assured that no one would be left out in the cold.
In addition, some people experiencing homelessness are being kept warm is on TTC buses.
