Monday was another record-breaking weather day in Windsor
It was another record-breaking day in Windsor weather, with temperatures breaking a 41-year-old record.
Temperatures reached 22 C on Monday, surpassing the last record high temperature of 19.1 C set on March 4, 1983.
Geoff Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, says Monday's temperatures are typical of the weather Windsor-Essex has seen this year.
"It's pretty early in the year to be talking about temperatures warmer than that 20 C, it's only the fourth of March," Coulson said.
Windsorites were enjoying the river front on Monday, March 4 as the region broke yet another temperature record. (Michael Evans/CBC)
While online temperature records date back to 1941, Coulson said they search to confirm records were broken by going back to some of Windsor's earliest weather stations, some of which have been in use since the 1800s.
Monday's temperature beats them all, Coulson said.
The warm weather is something meteorologists saw coming this winter, Coulson said. This year's El Nino event means water off the coast of South America is warmer than normal.
A turtle takes in some sunshine on a day of record-breaking heat in Windsor. Temperatures reached 22 C, breaking previous records of 19.1 C. (Michael Evans/CBC)
"These warmer-than-normal ocean waters can affect the global air masses, the trajectory of how weather systems move right across the planet, and one of the impacts that the annual events tend to happen have occur is milder than normal winters in the southwestern Ontario area," Coulson said.
"The underlying impacts of climate change and how it may be impacting the types of winters we get in Southwestern Ontario were certainly also playing a role in how this winter played out," Coulson said.
It's the latest in a string of record-breaking days for the region's weather. Last week, Windsor had the hottest February day on record, breaking not only that day's record of 14.2 C, but the record for any other day in February. The previous February high of 20.4 C was set in 2000.
Coulson said the warm weather is likely to stick around until Tuesday, but temperatures will then dip — so while it'll still be warmer than usual, the weather won't be record-breaking for the rest of the week. Windsor-Essex could get some rain on Tuesday, but Coulson also advised looking out for a possible mix of snow and rain this weekend.
"Winter's not quite over yet."
It was a record-breaking temperature day in Windsor on Monday, March 4 and Windsorites were out making the most of it on the Detroit River. (Michael Evans/CBC)
