Strong storm to batter Toronto and Southern Ontario with extreme wind speeds

Get ready for a very windy weekend in Toronto, as the city woke up to a special weather statement from Environment Canada on Friday morning, warning of strong winds expected to pummel us as a cold front passes through on Saturday.

The special weather statement went into effect for the City of Toronto just after 6:30 am Friday morning, giving the city a roughly 24-hour heads-up of winds reaching as strong as 80 km/h starting early Saturday morning and continuing through the afternoon as a north-to-south oriented cold front is expected to track east across the region.

Environment Canada warns of south and southwesterly winds with gusts up to 70 km/h blasting the city ahead of the cold front early Saturday morning, and even stronger west or northwest gusts of up to 80 km/h along and behind the front into the afternoon.

High wind speeds like these have been known to cause damage to utilities and other infrastructure like power lines, as well as tree branches. In the worst conditions, gusts of this strength can even damage buildings, including roof shingles and windows.

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In one extreme example from earlier in 2022, a midtown apartment building’s exterior facing was ripped away during high winds.

It’s the second such wind-related warning issued for the city by Environment Canada this week alone, following another ominous alert from the weather agency cautioning of wind gusts up to 90 km/h, only 28 km/h shy of hurricane force.

Luckily, that last alert passed without any real damage, so hopefully, Toronto has some weather luck remaining.