

Chris Fox, CP24.com





The brief reprieve from winter that the city has enjoyed over the last few days appears to be over.

The temperature on Tuesday morning was 7 C but it is expected to get increasingly cold throughout the day with a low of – 7 C in the forecast for Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, the temperature isn’t expected to top – 3 C and it may feel closer to – 11 with the wind chill.

Environment Canada has also issued a special weather statement for Toronto, warning of the possibility of freezing rain on Wednesday afternoon that could make for a messy rush hour commute.

“Precipitation is expected to begin Wednesday morning as ice pellets before becoming mixed with freezing rain near midday. Freezing rain could persist for several hours Wednesday afternoon before ending in the evening or overnight,” the advisory reads.

Flooding risk remains

The shift in weather that is expected to take place over the next 24 hours comes on the heels of a stint of unseasonably warm temperatures.

The temperature in Toronto hit a record 12 C on Monday afternoon, causing widespread melting of snow and some localized flooding.

At one point, both the Don Valley Parkway and Bayview Avenue were closed due to flooding.

Police initially decided to close the highway in both directions from Bloor Street to the Gardiner Expressway after water overflowed the banks of the Don River and flooded parts of the roadway shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday.

By 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the flooding had subsided enough to reopen the northbound lanes of the highway but the southbound lanes remained closed at Richmond Street until around 6:20 a.m.

According to Superintendent of Road Operations Mark Mills, the flooding was the result of an ice jam at the foot of the Don River near Keating Channel.

Mills said that chunks of ice and debris from that location actually ended up on the roadway and had to be cleared away by city crews using snow plows. Sweepers were also brought in to clear the road’s surface before the highway was reopened.

“We had a lot of staff out there over the weekend uncovering catch basins and doing a lot of snow removal in anticipation of this warmup. We uncovered about 1,200 catch basins and moved snow from about 233 kilometres of roadway so we were prepared but unfortunately there just wasn’t much we could do once we had the ice jam,” Mill told CP24 on Tuesday morning.

Bayview Avenue also closed due to flooding

The DVP was not the only major artery that was closed due to flooding either.

A portion of Bayview Avenue between Moore Avenue and River Street was also closed for several hours overnight due to flooding. The southbound lanes reopened just before 6 a.m. but the northbound lanes remain closed between Nesbitt Drive and Moore Avenue.

The flooding comes after the temperatures hit a record 12 C on Monday, melting a large portion of the snow that the city received during a major winter storm last week.

Due to the potential for further snowmelt, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority issued a flood warning for the entire GTA early Tuesday morning but lifted that warning later Tuesday afternoon,

In in a statement issued at the time, the TRCA said that “water levels in most rivers are receding, but ice jams have been reported and still exist” in a number of locations, including along the lower Humber River in Toronto.

Mills, however, told CP24 that water levels in the Don River have “gone down substantially.” and are not expected to pose any problems for the afternoon commute.

“As far as we know the river will not breach its banks anytime soon so the highway should be OK for the rest of today anyway,” he said.