It felt more like an mid-April day across Chatham-Kent, as temperature records were broken across the region.
“Much higher than normal and record shattering… not just in the Wallaceburg, Chatham-Kent area but across much of southwestern and southcentral Ontario,” Geoff Coulson, meteorologist for Environment Canada, told the Sydenham Current.
“We’re seeing temperature records for this day in history tumbling all over the place.”
Coulson said the previous record for the area for February 3rd for warmest temperature was 8.5°C set back in 1991.
He said the Chatham airport had readings of 12°C, while in Ridgetown the mercury climbed to 13.5°C.
“Anyway you slice it, that record has been broken pretty handily.”
Coulson said the big storm system that brought rain overnight on Tuesday and early Wednesday, also brought eh warmth.
“The centre of that system moved north of the area, through northern parts of Lake Huron to Georgian Bay, leaving the Chatham-Kent area with the warm part of that storm,” he said.
“What has happened, with the combination of the clouds breaking up, lots of sunshine available and these strong southwest winds, literally when I look at the weather map we’re drawing up this air from the American deep south. It’s coming up from Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio right into southwestern Ontario and resulting in these incredibly warm temperatures for this time of year.”
Coulson said people shouldn’t be putting out the lawn furniture just yet, as “it’s pretty much a one day wonder.
“I hope everyone did get a chance to get out there and enjoy it while it was there, but we will be back to more seasonal temperatures by Thursday,” he said.
The temperature is set to drop to -1°C overnight, and only get back up to 1°C on Thursday.
He said by the middle of next week it will actually be a bit colder than usual.
– Photo: Packs of snow in Crother’s Park in Wallaceburg turned to puddles of water thanks to the record-setting warm temperatures.
