‘Cool, wet, windy’: Heavy rainfall, strong winds expected in the GTA this weekend

Environment Canada climatologist Dave Phillips on the weekend weatherin Toronto, and what Canadians can expect this summer.

It’s going to be a soggy weekend, with heavy rainfall and strong winds expected throughout much of southern Ontario, Environment Canada says.

Late Saturday afternoon, the national weather agency issued a special weather statement for Toronto and surrounding areas, including Burlington – Oakville, Hamilton, Halton Hills – Milton, Mississauga – Brampton, Niagara Falls - Welland - Southern Niagara Region, Pickering - Oshawa - Southern Durham Region, St. Catharines - Grimsby - Northern Niagara Region, and Vaughan - Richmond Hill – Markham.

It is advising of heavy rainfall – between 30 and 50 millimetres – throughout the night.

“Rain is expected to change to drizzle from west to east, beginning early this evening over southwestern Ontario and Sunday morning over areas near Eastern Lake Ontario,” says Environment Canada, which had issued a special weather statement earlier on Saturday, also advising of rainfall and winds.

Power outages are possible and several have been reported throughout the region.

• Full forecast and everything else you need to know about GTA weather

‘Memorial Day’ storm affecting region

Dave Phillips, a climatologist for Environment Canada, said the “Memorial Day” storm being seen throughout the region came from the United States and brought rain early Saturday morning in southwestern Ontario. Toronto, meanwhile, started seeing rainfall around 7 a.m. but it will be an “all-day affair,” he noted.

The wet weather is expected to continue throughout the weekend, with the rain expected to see a reprieve around noon on Sunday, he said, as its tapers to a drizzle, with another “pulse” to come on Sunday night.

“Today looks like the worst of the two days, is certainly a soggy Saturday and Sunday, but and almost a weekend washout, truly for the GTA,” said Phillips.

The winds will “add even more misery to the situation,” he added, as they’ll cause the rain to blow horizontally.

‘Cool, wet, windy’

The average temperature in Toronto for his time of the year is 21 C, however today’s high is forecasted to be just 13 C, which is eight degrees cooler than normal, Phillips said.

“So cloudy, cool, wet, windy. It’s about as miserable as you can get for this of the year,” he said.

“It’s been certainly a cool, wet spring, and this will just be another one of those days. We thought it would be over last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, when we got those 30-degree temperatures, but boy, we’ve had frost conditions after that, and this is very inclement kind of weather.”

Hot summer across most of Canada: climatologist

Despite the lackluster spring, the forecast for the summer does looks promising across most of the country, the climatologist said.

“From coast to coast to coast, we’re saying June, July, and August looks like it’s going to be warmer than normal,” said Phillips, who anticipates there will be a lot of complaining about the heat and humidity come Labour Day.

“We’ve had kind of a tough winter and a disappointing spring, but it’s finally going to come, and it won’t just be one or two days, it’ll be persistent. We can plan our activities and get out and enjoy a situation.”