TORONTO -- The earliest start to spring in more than 100 years is set to bring with it a blast of warm but windy and rainy weather in Toronto.

A special weather statement has been issued for the City of Toronto, warning of potential thunderstorms and high wind gusts tomorrow.

"An approaching warm front will cause an area of showers and thunderstorms to move through the regions this evening and tonight," Enviornment Canada said on Thursday.

"Some of the storms will contain heavy downpours with local rainfall amounts of 15 to 25 mm in an hour possible. There will be the potential for high wind gusts Friday in the morning or early afternoon as a cold front approaches, preceded by a band of scattered showers and thunderstorms. Winds gusts of 90 km/h will be possible in this band."

Spring starts at exactly 11:49 p.m. tonight, marking the earliest start to the season in North America in 124 years.

For the first full day of spring tomorrow, Environment Canada forecasts temperatures will reach 16 C with mainly cloudy skies.

Unfortunately the warm weather won’t stay for long: temperatures are set to plummet on Friday night to a low of -10 C.

Tonight in Toronto:



✔️ Double digit temperatures

✔️ First possible thunderstorms of the season ⛈

✔️ SPRING’s arrival! (Earliest Vernal Equinox in more than 100 years) — Lyndsay Morrison (@Lyndsay_CTV) March 19, 2020

It will remain chilly, but sunny, over the weekend with a high of 0 C on Saturday and 1 C on Sunday.

Environment Canada says the record temperature for March 20 is 21.9 C and was set back in 2012 while the lowest was -20 C in 1949.

The average temperature for this time of year is 5 C.

Summer arrives on June 20.