Canada divided between record-breaking heat and frigid cold

Southwestern Ontario smashed through previous temperature records this morning, topping them by as much as 5 degrees C even before the Sun came up, and record highs will likely be set in eastern Ontario, southern Quebec and New Brunswick before the day is over.

"It is very unusual and we could get to 14, which would literally smash the previous record – I mean not even close,” David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment Canada, said this morning, according to the Globe and Mail.

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Indeed, at 8 A.M., shortly after Dr. Phillips' statement, Toronto Pearson Airport broke through its previous Jan. 30th record of 9.1°C, from 2006, and other weather stations across southwestern Ontario followed suit, with Windsor and London breaking records from 1988 (9.5°C and 9.1°C, respectively), and Hamilton finally ousting a 10°C record from way back in 1969!

Cities to the east, such as Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, haven't broken any records yet, but the day isn't over for them. As the warmth over southwestern Ontario is pushed to the east by the approaching cold front, their temperatures will climb towards their forecast highs (8°C for Ottawa and Montreal and 7°C for Quebec City) and will already have broken previous records (5.6°C in 1974, 5.2°C in 1988 and 1.4°C in 2008, respectively) long before they reach them.

"This is Gulf of Mexico air," said Phillips, who is considered to be Canada's top weather guru. “The southerly winds are bringing in the very warm air.”

In contrast, the Colorado Low that's pumping all this Gulf of Mexico air up into eastern Canada is pulling down arctic winds over northern B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Temperatures in Saskatoon and Regina this morning were down to -33°C, before wind-chill! That's far from record-breaking, given that their record lows are down around -45°C, but for someone flying from Toronto to Regina this morning, the negative 47 degree temperature difference would be quite the shock!

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This truly immense weather system (from eastern tip of warm front to southern tip of cold front, it stretches from Newfoundland to Texas!) is making a slow crawl across the Great Lakes today, but it should pick up a bit of speed as of tomorrow, as it heads to the northeast and out into the Atlantic Ocean for the weekend. The down-side of seeing it go for the east is that all that lovely warm air will go with it, leaving us with more snow and more seasonal temperatures. However, things will be looking up for the prairies as it also pulls those frigid arctic temperatures along with it too, letting more mild temperatures in for the weekend.

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