London broke not one, but two previous weather records as temperatures soared to nearly 20 C on Thursday.
The temperature climbed to 18.3 C at the London International Airport by 1pm, shattering the old record of 14.4 C set in 1930.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Ryan Rozinskis said the unusually warm weather also saw another longstanding record fall.
"We actually broke the monthly highest temperature record for February, which was 17.8 C set on February 26, 2000," said Rozinskis. "So quite an unseasonably warm day for the London area."
Since the spring-like weather rolled into southwestern Ontario on the Family Day weekend, London has broken a total of four previous records. A record was set Wednesday when temperatures reached 15.4 C, breaking the previous record of 13.9 C set back in 1930. Saturday also went down in the record books with a high of 14.5 C, making short work of the previous record of 11.1 C set in 1949.
Rozinskis explains it is extraordinary to see mild weather for this many days in a row in February.
It's very pattern specific as to what causes these temperatures to rise as we've seen. There is a low pressure system well over northern Ontario and that is helping to bring in some warmer air. As well as we have another system that is starting to make its way in and that is drawing in more warm air," said Rozinskis.
The normal daytime high for this time of year is around 0 C.
Londoners will be brought back to reality on Saturday night with the forecast calling for temperature to fall to minus 4 C with a 30% chance of flurries.
