Polar vortex may bring record-breaking cold weather to Toronto

Don’t get used to Sunday’s 21°C weather just yet, as Toronto’s temperatures are expected to dip this week due to the polar vortex.

According to The Weather Network, the coldest air “relative to normal around the globe is set to swirl across Ontario by Friday.”

“The polar vortex has remained in exceptional form over the past few months, and as you’re reading this, the core of the polar vortex (tropopause) is streaking across Nunavut, roughly 4,000 kilometres away,” stated The Weather Network.

Meteorologist Tyler Hamilton said there is potential for record-breaking cold this week.

The week’s forecast shows snow and rain on Friday, with a high of 5°C, but may feel more like 0°C.

The record cold May high for Toronto is 4.4°C, and was set in 1976.

The Weather Network

As for the snow, it is unusual for southern Ontario.

“Toronto (YYZ) typically accumulates a few centimetres of May snowfall every couple of decades since the beginning of the climate record, but it was notably more common in the 1960s and 1970s,” said Hamilton at The Weather Network.

“This year’s snowfall threat will ramp up by Thursday for northern Ontario and by Friday for southern Ontario. It will also spill into the weekend with continuous threats of snow and rounds of graupel across the Great Lakes Basin.”

So be prepared for some unusually cold weather this week.

And stay indoors.

The Weather Network