Toronto’s Acting Medical Officer of Health has issued an extreme cold weather alert for Wednesday as the temperature is expected to fall to -11C this evening.
The advisory is issued when the temperature is forecast to reach -15C or colder, or with a wind chill of -20 or colder.
The alert triggers cold weather services for homeless people, including TTC tokens for people to get to shelter, increased street outreach, and a direction to shelters to relax any service restrictions in place.
“It’s important to call it because there are people who are vulnerable to the cold and actually healthy people can suffer effects from the cold and it can be a very serious health matter,” Dr. Howard Shapiro, Associate Medical Officer of Health with Toronto Public Health told Global News.
“You can get things like frostbite or hypothermia. And these can have some important consequences all the way from hospitalization to leave and death.”
Two 24-hour extreme cold weather drop-ins will be opened by 3 p.m. on the day the alert is called and closed by noon on the day the alert is cancelled.
The public is encouraged to check on vulnerable friends, neighbours and family to ensure they are safe as the weather conditions change.
“We organize and plan for these types of events so that we can put in place a number of services. Those services include opening two 24 hour drop-ins,” Shapiro said.”
“We provide additional shelter beds, there is a street outreach looking for people who were outside trying to get them some food or get them to go into shelter.”
The temperature in Toronto is expected to rise to a high of -6C on Thursday but drops again to a low of -14 later in the evening.Want your weather on the go? Download Global News’ Skytracker weather apps for iPhone, iPad and Android
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