Anybody who thought Toronto’s weather would improve the rest of the week is out of luck.

Following a major snowstorm that caused chaos across the the city, Environment Canada has issued a new extreme cold warning starting Tuesday night that’s expected to last until Friday.

Meteorologists are concerned with the impending forecast of -19 C Tuesday night, and a windchill of -31 C.

“Normally when we reach windchills this low, you can get frostbite with exposed skin in 30 minutes,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Gerald Cheng. “Between 10 to 30 minutes is not out of the question depending on the health of the person.”

Wednesday will bring windchill temperatures around -28 C in the late afternoon, dipping to -37 C late at night, Environment Canada severe weather meteorologist Rob Kuhn said.

At that temperature “exposed skin could freeze in 10 to 20 minutes,” but if Torontonians take care and bundle up they should be fine, he said.

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Toronto’s UP Express has also shut down its service due to weather-related equipment issues and are running express buses between Union Station and the Toronto Pearson airport, as well as shuttle buses between Weston Station and the airport. It will resume at a reduced half-hour schedule on Thursday.

The TTC’s Line 3 in Scarborough was shut down Monday evening because of the storm. It resumed Wednesday morning, but tweeted at about 7 p.m. that service on the Scarborough RT was down due to weather conditions. TTC staff tweeted that shuttle buses were running, and RT service was not expected to resume for the remainder of the day.

This week’s winter storm covered the city in thick, white powder, congested roads, shut down schools and stalled transit, amounting to the most snow Toronto had seen in one day in more than 10 years, Environment Canada says.

The fast-moving storm originated from Alberta, raced across the Northern plains, eventually making its way to the Great Lakes, picking up enough moisture to envelop the city in snow.

Around 21 centimetres of snow fell in downtown Toronto on Monday, while 23 cm fell in Mississauga and 28 cm in Brampton, Cheng said.

When all was said and done, Toronto saw 26.4 cm, the most snow the city has seen in one day since Feb. 6, 2008 when there was 30.4 cm.

“We’ve certainly had more snow in the last week than we’ve had for the whole winter,” Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips said. “That’s pretty significant.”

Residents woke up Tuesday shovelling out from under the storm, amid warnings of a slow commute to work as the city scrambled to plow the roads. Multiple vehicles were upended, stuck in thick, heavy mounds of snow.

The city’s entire snow clearing fleet was deployed, which includes 1,100 pieces of equipment and 1,500 personnel.

“In terms of amount of salt used, we’ve used about 10,000 tonnes so far but the operation is ongoing,” City of Toronto spokesperson Eric Holmes wrote in an emailed statement to the Star on Tuesday morning.

“Because the snow arrived so quickly and accumulation was rapid, plows were deployed earlier than normal and salters cycled fewer times than usual.”

Later in the day, Holmes said that most of the salters were back on the roads because of the high winds.

“Gusts have pushed snow back into areas that have already been plowed multiple times,” Holmes said. “And due to high winds, sidewalk plows are cycling back with an aim to finish late tonight/early morning and will return to locations as necessary.”

Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said there were about 300 crashes across the GTA throughout Monday into early Tuesday morning.

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More than 260 flights had been cancelled by 3 p.m. Tuesday at Pearson airport.

The storm also had a major impact on schools Tuesday.

The Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board as well as Durham Region District and Catholic Schools boards cancelled all buses for the day. Schools remained open.

Peel District and Dufferin-Peel Catholic District school boards shut down all buses and schools for the day.

The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board and Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board also closed schools.

Most Toronto universities and colleges remained open for the day, including Ryerson, University of Toronto (St. George campus), York, George Brown, Centennial and Seneca.

Premila D’Sa is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @premila_dsa

Emerald Bensadoun is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @twerk_vonnegut

Jack Hauen is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @jackhauen

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