Buckle up, the Golden Horseshoe is in for a wild weather ride.
At 11 a.m. Wednesday, sensors at Pearson Airport put the temperature at 12.9 Celsius, making it the warmest February 28th since record-keeping began in 1938. By 1 p.m., mercury hit 15.7. The previous record of 11.1 was set in 1954.
But don't get too comfortable in your t-shirt.
Environment Canada cautions snow is on the way Thursday and Friday.
Meteorologist Geoff Coulson says a system from Texas arrive in the Golden Horseshoe as rain at about 4 p.m. Thursday. That rain will change over to snow as we move into evening. The snowfall won't let up until somewhere between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday.
Coulson says most of the Greater Toronto Area will see pileup of 5-10 cm by Friday morning, another 1-2 cm as lighter snow continues into the afternoon. But some cities will be harder-hit.
"As you go down towards Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton and into the Niagara Peninsula, they could be looking at more 15 centimetres of snow by the time it tapers off on Friday morning," Coulson said.
Those communities are among those under a special weather statement with the possibility of snowfall warnings. A snowfall warning is issued when forecasters expect at least 15 cm of snow to fall in a 12 hour period.
Coulson says the storm is still developing so if it tracks further north, Toronto and other parts of the GTA could see higher snowfall amounts.
For the weekend and into next week the GTA should see sunshine and a return to warmer than normal temperatures as high as six degrees. The average high for this time of year is one or two degrees