Spring? Ontario missed the memo with -30 C temperature recorded
The -30 C reading on Saturday morning serves as a frosty reminder for Canadians: Just because the calendar says spring, it doesn’t mean Mother Nature agrees
Ontario’s first spring weekend felt anything but, with temperatures diving up to 15 degrees below seasonal normals.
Saturday morning was downright frigid, especially across northwestern Ontario, where Weagamow Lake, Ont., plummeted to a bone-chilling -30.5°C. Sandy Lake followed closely behind at -29°C, with Timmins bottoming out at nearly -20°C.
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And the cold won't stop there––overnight lows heading into Sunday show widespread, below-seasonal temperatures spreading east, even creeping into southern Ontario. While it’s mildly unusual, cold for late March, it's certainly not unprecedented.
Just last year, Weagamow Lake endured five straight days below -30°C (March 20–24). Timmins, too, recorded -30.2°C as late as March 26, 2014, and nearly hit -30°C on April 1, 1964. It can always be worse, right?
Correct. We've faced worse at later dates. Timmins recorded some of the coldest April temperatures in Ontario, hitting a bone-chilling -29.4°C on April 1, 1964.
A brutal cold snap in April 1923 set all-time April minimum temperatures for Sudbury, Ottawa, and London, Ont., with temperatures dropping well into the -20s for some.
Still, this kind of cold serves as a frosty reminder: Just because the calendar says spring, it doesn’t mean Mother Nature agrees. For now, Ontario remains firmly in winter’s icy grip with a chilly trough hanging out near Hudson Bay for the remainder of the month.
