While scientists say 2014 was the warmest year on record globally, in Southwestern Ontario it's going down as the coldest.
Despite an unusually warm December, Environment Canada Senior Climatologist David Phillips says the average temperature for all of 2014 was 8.2C (46.7F). Data collected in the region over the past 75 years shows the average temperature is 9.9C (49.9F).
"It wasn't the coldest winter. It wasn't the coldest spring, the coldest spring or the coldest fall, but consistently throughout the entire year every season was colder than normal."
The years 1963 and 1978 share the previous record with an average temperature of 8.4C (47.1F).
"It's almost as if nature got tired," says Phillips with his theory why Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent received no snow and experienced double-digit highs in December. "It sort of worked overtime trying to give you a cold and snowy time last winter and year, and it was exhausted when it came to December."
Globally, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. says the average temperature in November was 12.9C (55.2F).
