Coldest weather of the season expected this week in GTA

Christmas holidays are over, but the Arctic chill has moved into the GTA, including Toronto.

A “frigid Arctic air mass” arrived on Sunday night, leading to a deep freeze in southern Ontario this week.

The weather prompted Environment Canada to issue a special weather statement on Monday for much of southern Ontario calling for the “coldest weather so far this season.” The special weather statement has since ended.

Extreme cold warnings are likely throughout the work week due to the combination of cold and wind.

Monday’s high of -6 C has already been reached, but the temperature will be near -9 C for the rest of the day with the wind chill near -19, 680News meteorologist Jill Taylor said. The low will be near -12 C, but will feel like -18 C with the wind.

“Temperatures will plunge to well below average values for early January,” Environment Canada said in its statement.

“I know it’s January, I know it’s winter in Canada, but this is cold even by January standards,” Taylor said.

However, CityNews meteorologist Natasha Ramsahai said temperatures this week will likely not hit record cold values.

“The record cold daytime highs stand anywhere from 3-10 degrees colder than what we are expecting this week,” Ramsahai said.

“Wednesday will be close though with a forecast high of -14 C and the record ‘low maximum’ for that day is -17.3 C, and that was set last year.”

 

She also said overnight lows for this week are also not close to record temperatures, as the forecast calls for lows of between -18 C to -12 C.

“To reach record low values, you’ve got to get into the -27 C to -21 C range,” Ramsahai said.

With the current wind chill values, there is a risk for hypothermia. Although the risk for frostbite in Toronto remains low, the likelihood is higher outside of the city where it’s expected to be colder.

Snow squalls for parts for GTA

Meanwhile, a snow squall warning has ended for parts of the GTA, including Newmarket, Uxbridge, southern Durham Region and northern York Region. The warning, which extended to Barrie and Orillia, was issued Monday morning. The warning remains in place for some areas north of the GTA including Grey-Bruce, Midland and Orillia.

A snow squall watch has also ended for Halton, Peel, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Markham, Vaughan, southern Durham Region, Guelph and parts of cottage country. The watch is still in place for the Wingham, Goderich and Stratford areas.

For areas under a warning, heavy and blowing snow is expected to persist into Wednesday morning, resulting in reduced visibility. Environment Canada said snow will accumulate quickly.

“Snow squalls cause weather conditions to vary considerably,” the agency said.

“Changes from clear skies to heavy snow within just a few kilometres are common.”

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