With just hours to go before the end of the month, a severe weather meteorologist at Environment Canada says Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent didn't just top the record for warmest December ever; it obliterated it.
Geoff Coulson says there's no doubt this past month will go down as the warmest December on record. The average temperature this month is 4.7 C (40.46 F). The previous record of 3.2 C (37.76 F) was set in 2006 while the normal high at this time of year is -1.2 C (29.84 F).
"We had a fairly good idea going into this fall and winter with the very strong El Nino we'd likely be dealing with somewhat milder than normal conditions, but I don't think any of the models that I looked at were indicating this kind of record warmth," says Coulson.
As for whether this is the result of climate change, Coulson says the jury is still out.
"We normally talk about trends over a number of decades. Certainly is going to fit into that pattern that the climatologists have been talking about," he says. "But, this is likely something that will have to be confirmed over the next number of years."
Looking ahead to January, Coulson predicts warmer than seasonal temperatures again, although not record-breaking.
