Heat Warning Grips GTA as Summer Arrives Hard

Sweat pants might want to stay packed for another week. Toronto is about to get introduced to summer the hard way, with Environment Canada issuing the city's first heat warning of the season Monday through Tuesday night.

Daytime highs will reach around 30 degrees Celsius, but throw in the humidity and the heat index balloons to nearly 36 degrees—the kind of day that makes the air feel thick and the pavement radiate. Overnight lows between 18 and 20 degrees will offer little relief, meaning even evening strolls along the waterfront won't cool things down the way people hope.

The city's already preparing. Toronto's activating cooling spaces across the neighbourhoods, spinning up splash pads for kids, and deploying mobile water stations in high-foot-traffic areas. For people without air conditioning—renters in older buildings, folks without access to cool refuges—the city's making sure there's somewhere to go.

This is Victoria Day weekend weather, and it's the kind of heat that changes people's plans. Backyard barbecues become evening affairs. Patios get crowded early. The lakefront becomes the only place worth being. So much for the cool spring we had—summer's knocking, and it's not being subtle about it.