Freezing rain to make for difficult morning commute in Toronto and GTHA

A freezing rain warning has been issued for Toronto and parts of the GTHA for Thursday.

Environment Canada says the conditions will have a “significant impact” on the morning rush hour in urban areas before the freezing rain transitions to rain or drizzle by the afternoon.

The warning is in effect for Toronto, Hamilton, Halton, Mississauga, Brampton, and Durham region. Several school bus cancellations are in place around the GTA — a full list can be found here.

“If we were sitting at minus 10, minus 20, this would be straight up snow,” said CityNews 680 meteorologist Natasha Ramsahai, adding that between one to three centimetres of accumulation are possible.

“Unfortunately, our temperatures have been hovering right around that freezing mark – a little bit below at night, a little bit above during the day – and that’s what gives us the problem with this incoming Colorado low because the precipitation type is going to be changing throughout the day.”

Slow travel all day tomorrow across the GTHA starting during the AM commute. Expect changing precipitation types throughout the day so leave extra travel time pic.twitter.com/6HABJ4D2Uo

— Natasha Ramsahai (@CityNatasha) January 18, 2023

Ramsahai says Toronto will see wet snow to start the morning before switching over to ice pellets while areas to the north will see more of that freezing rain.

“On top of all of the snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain, we’re also going to throw in wind gusts up to 70 km per hour.”