We hate to break it to you, but it looks like our balmy autumn afternoons won’t be around too much longer. Ontario’s weather is taking a sharp turn in the second half of fall, ushering in an “earlier arrival to winter weather,” reports The Weather Network.

It doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting off easy with a few frosty days and a dusting of snow, either. Meteorologist Dr. Doug Gillham predicts that Ontario will get “more winter weather leading up to the holidays than we have often seen over the past 25 years.” Nope, not loving the sound of that!

“We expect that the weather during the weeks leading up to the holidays will be more conducive to skiing than to golfing, which is in contrast to many Decembers over the past 25 years,” he said.

According to Gillham, an “abundance of lake-effect snow” will hit the province in the latter half of fall. However, whether that’ll happen in the first few weeks or later weeks of November is still up to chance.

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Gillham said to The Weather Network that our chances for decent patio weather are looking slim in November, with maybe just a few warm and sunny enough days to dine outdoors throughout the month.

It’s too early to tell just how wintry it’ll get this December in Ontario, but Gillham said it’s looking pretty likely that temperatures will be below normal and snowfall amounts above normal.

He did note, however, that “it is possible that the storms will stay to our south and if that happens, snow totals will not be very memorable except for in the lake-effect areas.”

As for winter forecast predictions, the Old Farmers Almanac says Canada is in for a “frosty flip-flop” of a season. Temperatures and snowfall amounts will swing dramatically throughout the season, with “winter whopper” snowstorms thrown into the mix. Looks like we just have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst at this point!