GTA back in the deep freeze as arctic air moves in

An extreme cold warning continues across Toronto and the GTA as frigid arctic air and gusty winds combine for a bitterly cold Thursday.

Environment Canada issued the warning on Wednesday afternoon, which also extends to other areas of southern Ontario, including Hamilton, Barrie, Orillia, Waterloo and Niagara.

Thursday’s forecast calls for sun and cloud with a northwest wind and high of -13 C, 680News meteorologist Jill Taylor said. The low will be near -22 C but it will feel close to -35 C with the wind.

“The temperature is going to jump around a bit and therefore so will the wind chill values,” Taylor said.

Residents in the region woke up to a wind chill near -30 on Thursday morning. The wind chill will rise to -23 in the afternoon; however, Taylor said the wind chill could drop to -35 early overnight “before the wind settles down.”

“Strong and gusty northwesterly winds will combine with the frigid temperatures to produce extremely cold wind chill values of -35 to -30 today through Friday morning,” Environment Canada said in a statement.

Extreme cold warnings are issued when frigid temperatures or the wind chill could cause frostbite and hypothermia. Frostbite on exposed skin can occur in 10 minutes.

Toronto is also under an extreme cold weather alert issued by the city last Thursday, meaning extra services are available for the homeless. Click here for more information on cold weather alerts and the services they trigger.

The bitterly cold wind chill will “slowly improve by Friday afternoon,” Environment Canada said.

According to Taylor, the wind chill will stay near -30 on Friday morning, but the high will improve to -12 C under mainly sunny skies and a low near -17 C. She also said there is relief from the bitter cold on the weekend, but snow is in store.

Click here for the full weather forecast.

So far this year, Toronto has been under an extreme cold weather alert for 25 days.

Below is an interactive chart of statistics on extreme cold weather alerts in Toronto; data courtesy of City of Toronto. Mobile viewers, click here.

In the United States, 25 states are being affected by this arctic blast, including Florida and Atlanta.

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