Friday in London, Ont., is officially the hottest April 14 since 1883.
Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Peter Kimbell confirmed the record to Global News after searching through the agency’s archives.
“It doesn’t appear on the website, but if you dig even deeper back into the archives … the actual record for today is 1883, 26.7 C.”
As of 3 p.m. Friday, the temperature had climbed to 26.8 C.
Outside of the archival records, Environment Canada’s website listed the previous high temperature for the day of 24.4 C, set in 1941, which was shattered by noon when the temperature was recorded at 24.9 C.
The hot and sunny conditions have also prompted a special air quality statement from Environment and Climate Change Canada for much of southern Ontario, warning of increasing ground-level ozone concentrations.
“It won’t last very long,” said Kimbell.
“We’re talking about between late afternoon and early evening when the air quality may reach those poor air quality levels. But then it’s going to go down again pretty rapidly after sunset.”
The record-smashing heat comes at the tail end of a string of hot days with sunshine and temperatures in the mid- to high-20s, though previous days’ temperatures were shy of setting new records.
Another record could be set on Saturday as the temperature is again forecast to reach 28 C. The current record high for April 15 is 27.2 C set in 2003.
The forecast is calling for rain and a high of 23 C on Sunday before the temperature plummets on Monday to a high of just 9 C and an overnight low of 1 C.
“It’ll feel dramatically colder on Monday, but we’ll actually be just getting back up just a little bit below normal.”
He added that flurries are possible Monday night.
“We’re well below normal levels of snowfall for the month of April. And let’s just cross our fingers and hope it stays that way.”
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