Sorry to break the news, but it looks like Toronto won’t be getting a white Christmas this year!
According to Environment Canada, it’s highly unlikely that the city will receive any snow in the coming week. Instead, Torontonians can expect above seasonal temperatures heading into the weekend.
“We’ll see temperatures of five, almost ten degrees above normal in some parts of the GTA. So, very warm, very mild, especially the overnight lows. Those are expected to remain above zero for the entirety of the weekend. So, very warm, and not really looking at any precipitation in the forecast until probably late on Tuesday into Wednesday,” Environment Canada Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Steven Flisfeder said to Now Toronto on Wednesday.
Today is mainly cloudy with a high of 4 C. Environment Canada says on Thursday, it’s going to be a mix of sun and clouds with an expected high of -1 C. On Friday, the same conditions are expected, however the high is set to be warmer at 1 C. Then, on Saturday, cloudy conditions is set to loom all day with an expected high of 4 C.
On Sunday, which is Christmas Eve, it’s set to be a warm day with an expected high of 6 C. Finally, on Christmas Day, Toronto’s high is expected to be a mild 8 C.
Flisfeder says these unseasonably warm temperatures are due to a number of reasons but primarily due to a warm air mass coming from the United States that is bringing milder temperatures.
He explains that the city is experiencing above seasonal temperatures because of a large global scale phenomenon called El Nino, which affects Western parts of Canada. As a result, the city is not likely to receive any snow in the next seven to ten days.
“There’s not really any kind of snow systems expected for the GTA and what we do expect beyond that is warmer than seasonal temperatures…But in the next one to two weeks, we can say, we’re not really expecting any major systems to bring snow to the city,” Flisfeder said.
Despite this, Flisfeder encourages Torontonians to keep an eye on the forecast just in case anything changes.
