After a rather mild winter, the start of spring will be on the colder side with a chance of flurries across southwestern Ontario.
Spring officially arrives on Tuesday, March 19 at 11:06 p.m.
Environment Canada Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Geoff Coulson said while El Niño did contribute to a milder than normal winter, the weather pattern has somewhat shifted.
"Instead of bringing in air masses from a milder direction like the southwest, we're now pulling in a more Arctic air mass from northwestern Ontario," he said. "That's actually going to be with us through the rest of the work week and probably into the weekend as well."
Daytime highs this week will hover around the freezing mark, which is well below the normal temperature of 7 C for this time of year. Coulson also said overnight lows Wednesday and Thursday are expected to dip to around minus 8 C, whereas normally the low for this time of year is minus 3 C.
Temperatures are expected to inch upwards next week but the region could also see a mix of precipitation with rain and snow.
"But the general precipitation trend as we head into April is still a bit uncertain at this point," he said.
"Right now, the long-range models for the first part of April also indicate temperatures are expected to be overall around seasonal values or a little bit warmer than seasonal values, and then that trend continues as we go through the rest of April. It looks like the second half of April, at this point, [will be] generally warmer than normal."
However, Coulson said the weather can still change dramatically from one day to another so there could still be sporadic cold days in April.
As a reminder to motorists, Coulson said it's still a little too early to take off the winter tires and habits may need to be adjusted for winter driving conditions this week.