Not only did Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent set record lows overnight, Environment Canada says this February is shaping up to be the coldest in well over a century.
While Environment Canada has ended an extreme cold warning for the region, Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Peter Kimbell says the mean temperature so far this month has been -9.5 C (14.9 F). The last time the temperature dipped this low was February 1978 when the mean temperature was -9.1 C (15.6 F). The normal temperature for February is 1 C (34 F).
If you're looking for the record though, Kimbell says you'll have to look beyond records collected in the 20th Century. "Looking back to the late 1800s, we find that in 1885 and 1875, they had a mean temperature of -11.2 C (11.84 F) and -11.3 C (11.66 F). So, there actually were a couple of Februaries back 120 or 130 years ago which were a bit colder than what we're getting now."
Early Friday morning, Ridgetown's low bottomed out at -31.9 C (-25.4 F), smashing a record of -25 C (-13 F) set in 1929. At Windsor Airport, the temperature fell to -26.5 C (-15.7 F) beating a record set in 1966 of -17.2 C (1.04 F).
Aside from the odd day where the high will reach the minus single digits, Kimbell says there's no relief in the short term. "There is no warm air in sight yet. That's the bad news," he says. "The good news is the days are getting longer, and we are going to start getting into the days which will warm just because the sun is getting stronger."