Not as hot as ’46

Despite what seems like unusually warm temperatures over the past couple of days, Environment Canada officials say the city is nowhere near where the record is.

With Thunder Bay reaching 16.2 C yesterday and 17 C today, Environment Canada meteorologist Jim Prime said the record for the hottest March was set at 22 C in 1946.

"Anywhere from Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, Kenora and Thunder Bay were all seeing temperatures around 20 to 23," he said, adding that on Sunday the country’s hotspot was Atikokan at a high of 16.5 C.

Prime also said that while the temperatures might seem unusual, on March 16 and 17 of last year Thunder Bay saw a high of 13 C.

"We’re actually kind of following what happened last year," Prime said, adding the cooler temperatures predicted for this weekend also happened in 2009.

"By Friday, Saturday, Sunday we’re probably going to be getting right back to seasonal temperatures and our seasonal highs at this time are around zero," he said.

The up and down spring temperatures are caused by competition between warm air coming from the south and the cold air from the north, said Prime.

"They kind of battle it out over Ontario," he said.

One thing that is different this year is Northwestern Ontario is in an El Nino regime, Prime added, which is when you have warm water over the Pacific altering the airflow over North America.

Lakehead University climatologist Graham Saunders also attributed the warm winter the area’s experienced to El Nino and that the region hasn’t been receiving as much northern air.

Both Saunders and Prime said they wouldn’t attribute the warm weather to climate change, but Saunders said there have been more and stronger El Ninos over the last 60 years.

"In itself it doesn’t confirm climate change," he said. "It doesn’t contradict it either."

Environment Canada’s long-range forecast predicts cooler temperatures later this week, with lows around –10 C for Saturday and Sunday.

Environment Canada predicted that snow could hit this area on Thursday, however that forecast has since been changed. Thursday still features a 40 per cent chance of precipitation, but the predicted low is now at an estimated 4 C.

Normal temperatures for this time of year are closer to –10 C.