A new record, spring brings Ontario its coldest winter temperature

It’s the first week of spring, but Fort Severn scored Ontario’s coldest temperature of the season on March 22 when the province’s northernmost community saw a frosty morning low of -38.8°C.

A temperature closing in on 40 below zero is cold. Bitterly cold. The kind of cold that allows frostbite to develop in mere minutes.

But it’s not nearly as cold as it could get—as cold as it should get—anywhere in Ontario during the cooler months, a testament to the historic warmth that’s bathed the country lately.

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In fact, if Fort Severn’s -38.8°C goes down as the lowest temperature we manage to record in Ontario before spring air takes hold, it’ll live in the books as the warmest minimum temperature ever measured in the province during the cold season. Every other season has seen at least one community record a colder temperature.

Fort Severn’s reading beats the previous warmest minimum temperature on record for Ontario by one-tenth of one degree. The old record was a province-wide low temperature of -38.9°C measured in Peawanuck during the 2001-02 season.

We just rolled through a historically warm winter across Canada. Average temperatures across Canada between December and February came in nearly 5°C above normal, eclipsing the previous all-time warmest winter by a whopping 1.3°C.

Ontario played host to much of the abnormally toasty air that drove the country to achieve that grim milestone. The cities of Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor, and Timmins all saw their warmest winters ever recorded.

Toronto typically goes an entire February without ever seeing a high temperature crack the 10-degree mark.

This year, though, the city saw seven days with highs of 10°C or warmer during the month of February. This included an astounding afternoon high of 16.5°C on February 28—more typical of the beginning of May than the end of February.

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Folks across northern Ontario felt the lack of extreme cold more than just about anyone else. Typically, the isolated communities near Hudson Bay and James Bay bear the brunt of the province’s coldest air.

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Moosonee has only seen four days this season with a temperature of -30°C or colder, falling far short of their normal count of about 27 days—nearly a full month—with temperatures that should dip below that frigid mark. Timmins to the south typically notches 15 days at or below -30°C. This year, though, they only reached that chilly benchmark twice.

Header image of Fort Severn, Ontario, courtesy of Dave Horne.

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