Heavy rains hit Toronto, parts of GTA remain under severe thunderstorm warning after spring-like day
Posted March 11, 2021 5:32 pm.
Last Updated March 11, 2021 6:30 pm.
Heavy rains hit Toronto on Thursday evening, but a severe thunderstorm warning for the city was ended by Environment Canada at around 6 p.m.
Halton-Peel, York-Durham, and the City of Hamilton are all currently still under a severe thunderstorm warning as a cold front slices through the humidity and warmth that we experienced throughout much of the day.
“These are the first thunderstorms of the season for southern Ontario. You don’t see this often in March,” said 680 NEWS meteorologist Natasha Ramsahai.
“The freezing level isn’t that far above the ground today so it helped allow these storms to pop into that colder air aloft.”
Environment Canada says meteorologists are tracking a line of severe thunderstorms “capable of producing very strong wind gusts, pea to dime size hail and heavy rain.”
Ramsahai says we had “record-breaking temperatures” today in Toronto, leading to a clash of two air masses that is helping to give the lift needed for these thunderstorms.
The line of showers is fast moving meaning flooding rain won’t be an issue.
As a result of the cold front setting off the storms, temperatures are expected to dip in and across Toronto into Friday, with us waking up to beautiful sunny skies but morning wind chills near -6.
Today is going down as the warmest March 11th on record @TorontoPearson … honestly, it's pretty easy to beat a daily record. Now if we came close to the warmest March day on record?…now that would be impressive! pic.twitter.com/jJe3FmP5F3
— CityNews 680 Weather (Inactive) (@680NEWSweather) March 11, 2021
Temperatures could increase to around 11 degrees on Friday afternoon.
Severe thunderstorm warnings are issued when imminent or occurring thunderstorms are likely to produce or are producing one or more of the following: large hail, damaging winds, torrential rainfall.
