A major ice storm is forecast for Toronto tomorrow, with accumulations forecast as high as 5 to 10mm before the freezing rain subsides. Worse still, the slipperiest conditions are expected to greet the morning commute, as the freezing rain is due to begin around dawn on Thursday.

Joy of joys. Throw in wind gusts of 50kph and you have a recipe for downed branches and possible power outages.

Prior to that, the picture isn't a whole lot rosier. Toronto can expect a mix of snow and ice pellets this evening before the worst weather moves in overnight. If there's any good news in the forecast, it's that rising temperatures tomorrow afternoon promise an end to the icy weather for the afternoon commute.

No one's predicting that this will be on par with the 2013 ice storm that crippled the city, but the Weather Network warns that travel conditions tomorrow could be "treacherous." That sounds adequately alarming to me.

Happy spring, Toronto.

Photo by Ben Roffelsen in the blogTO Flickr pool.