London has smashed an 87-year-old weather record, and is poised to do so again on Thursday.
Temperatures soared to 15.4 C at the London International Airport Wednesday afternoon, breaking the previous record of 13.9 C set back in 1930.
With the mild weather sticking around until the weekend, Environment Canada Meteorologist Geoff Coulson said another record set in the same year is also in jeopardy of falling.
"If we reach the forecast high on Thursday of 16 C, then that would also be a record for that date in history. The current record for February 23 is 14.4 C set back in 1930," said Coulson.
Spring-like weather arrived in southwestern Ontario at the end of last week, with a record temperature set on Saturday as the high reached 14.5 C, shattering the previous record of 11.1 C set in 1949. Whether a record was broken on Sunday has been debated with one airport weather station reporting temperatures climbed to 12.1 C and the other stating it only made it to 11.1 C. Either way, the bout of warm weather is extraordinary.
"In February as the days are getting a bit longer, the sun is getting a big stronger we can expect to see a few days here and there where we are going to get above normal temperatures but to string this many days in a row starting with the Family Day long weekend, right through into this Saturday we are going to be above normal. This is certainly something that we don't see very often," said Coulson.
As all good things must come to an end, the London-area is in line to return to more seasonal temperatures by next week.
"We are seeing a system that is going to come in on Friday," said Coulson. "With the mild temperatures it is mostly going to be rain for the bulk of the system, but then as the tail end moves through late Saturday we are going to see the rain change over to flurry activity before the system pulls out. Then we set ourselves up for more seasonal temperatures for Sunday and into next week."
The normal daytime high for this time of year is around 0 C.
