Record-breaking cold sweeps through southern Ontario

As if we hadn't already set enough records for cold and snow for January and February, even more are being broken for March across southern Ontario, due to this latest blast of Arctic chills flowing through the province.

Temperatures have been dipping into the -20s Celsius in southern Ontario the past few nights, but in the hours just after midnight last night, they dropped to the lowest point seen in years. Some cities shattered records set within the last 10 years or so, from recently installed weather stations or from updated monitors, while others broke records that have stood for decades.

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Peterborough and Sarnia blew past records set in 2005 and 2009 (respectively), exceeding them by at least 10 degrees C, while Barrie and Kitchener-Waterloo broke records set in 2005 by around 7 degrees C.

It wasn't only newer records that fell this morning, though. Hamilton Airport recorded a temperature of -22 C at 2 a.m., beating a 52-year-old record of -17.2 C set on March 4, 1962. London's overnight low of -24 C broke the record of -22.8 C, from this day back in 1950. Windsor's previous record held the longest, though. The low of -17 C there last night beat out -14.4 C from all the way back in 1943.

Typically, at this time of year, cities in southern Ontario are enjoying a slow climb into springtime weather, with the average overnight low temperatures at around -6 C, and average daily highs of just above zero degrees C.

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This persistent cold weather most certainly has people wishing for spring weather to hurry up and make its arrival. Unfortunately, though, from all indications (and from weather experts at both Environment Canada and The Weather Network), even though we've already passed into meteorological spring (starting on March 1st) and we'll move into astronomical spring on March 20, most Canadians won't be seeing the weather conditions to go along with it until around mid-April.

One thing to possibly look forward to, though, is that forecasters are seeing signs that we may be getting another visit from El Niño later this year, which typically means a warmer fall and winter for Canada. The last El Niño, in 2010, effectively cancelled winter across most of the country, and the last strong El Niño, in 1998, helped give us the warmest year on record at the time (exceeded now only by 2005 and 2010). It may not necessarily be all good if the forecast pans out (1998 was also the year of the infamous Ice Storm of the Century in Ontario, Quebec and the U.S. Northeast), but it would be nice to have a more mild winter after this one.

(Photo courtesy: Canadian Press)

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