'Weather whiplash': Toronto could could see its coldest temperatures this winter tonight

Toronto residents can expect “weather whiplash” over the next few days as the temperatures quickly return to freezing.

Environment Canada is forecasting seasonably mild temperatures yet again on Friday, but then the weather is expected to pivot.

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"It will be 6 C early this afternoon, zero by dinner and then - 5 C mid evening and -13 C tonight and feeling like – 20,” CP24 Meteorologist Bill Coulter said.

“That my friends is weather whiplash and you should prepare yourself for it. It will be a bitterly cold evening tonight if you are out celebrating your Friday night."

The weekend will continue to be chilly, with a high of -4 C expected Saturday. In the morning, the weather agency says it will feel like -23 with the wind chill.

Coulter says that these temperatures will be among the coldest Torontonians have felt all winter.

But there is good news. He says that warm air is poised to move into the region yet again by the middle of next week. Showers are expected by Tuesday, with the temperatures creeping back into the double digits.

‘The lost winter’

Dave Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, told CP24 a cold front is descending and residents can expect temperatures to go from “summerlike” to “winter-like,” with the possibility that Toronto could see “its coldest moment of the entire winter season tonight” or at least approach it.

“But as soon as it arrives, it’s going to depart,” he said. “It’s an express.”

Phillips has described this winter as “lost,” saying Toronto has seen more rain and fog than snow. While most winters have a mild month, Phillips said this season has been nearly ‘non-existent.’

At the same time, he urged drivers not to take their snow tires off just yet.

“My sense is that winter hasn't told us what it's finally going to give us, but it's almost in the air that it's spent.”