GTA to experience a cold snap following winter storm

While a relatively strong winter storm that brought snow, rain, strong winds and even thunder snow into Ontario last night appears to be over in the GTA, expect a chill to linger in some areas this weekend and into early next week.

CP24 meteorologist Bill Coulter says the system “stood as a floodgate to winter’s chill.”

“While [the storm system] only brought about 5 cm of wet snow to Pearson before changing over to rain, this system also stood as a floodgate to winter’s chill. As the low continues to spiral away to the east, bitterly cold air is spilling into southern Ontario for tonight and Sunday will stick around for most of next week.”

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According to Environment Canada, a moderately low afternoon temperature of 1 C is in effect for Toronto. However, wind gusts of 40 to 70 km/h are likely to make it feel closer to -9 C at times. There’s also a chance of flurries in the works Saturday night, with 77 per cent humidity.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Toronto Pearson International Airport said that while it expects to see winds of up to 65 km/h, the airport is “getting back on schedule” following the storm.

During the storm, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which operates Pearson, confirmed a total of 193 cancelled flights, including both arrivals and departures. In a statement sent to CTV News, GTAA said it cannot confirm what portion of the cancelled flights were due to weather.

“…We can’t specify what portion of them were due to weather – other issues would include any mechanical, staffing, or any other factors elsewhere that day. For sure, the weather in Chicago and Toronto contributed to a majority of them.”

Saturday's active precipitation has been enough for the airport’s central deicing facility (CDF) to de-ice 65 aircrafts, primarily between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Comparatively, 56 aircrafts were serviced by CDF last night amid the storm.

COLD TEMPERATURES TO CONTINUE INTO NEXT WEEK

Come Sunday, the temperature is forecasted to drop with mainly cloudy skies, a chance of flurries and a high of -6 C.

Next week will hover between -6 C to -9 C. Monday and Tuesday will have considerable drops in temperature, with both days averaging highs of -10 C. Wind chill will make it feel like -18 C at times, despite the otherwise sunny skies.

Thursday will warm to -5 C, with about 1 cm of flurries expected to fall.

Friday will dip again to -8 C, with a wind chill of -15 C. Scattered flurries are expected to accumulate about 1-3 cm of snow throughout the day, with overcast skies.

It will be sunnier on Saturday, but temperatures will remain brisk with a high of -10 C.