Environment Canada's Senior Climatologist says this has probably been the warmest February week ever in Sarnia.
David Phillips says there have been four new record highs set and one tied in five of the last seven days.
The temperature at Chris Hadfield Airport peaked at 18 C (64 F) at 1pm Friday, crushing the previous record for February 24 of 11.1 C set in 1958.
Phillips says to have such unusually high temperatures over an entire week in February is "quite an achievement by nature" but he says we shouldn't jump to conclusions about climate change.
"It's not something we can see, climate change, when we look out the window," said Phillips. "There are kind of elements of it. This is wild now, and weird and wacky and we're talking about it and so is everybody else across Ontario. In 40 years from now, we wouldn't even be talking about this. This probably would be normal."
Just two years ago in 2015, February in Sarnia-Lambton was the coldest month ever with the average temperature 8 degrees below normal at -12 C.
A sharp return to normal conditions for this time of year is forecast for Saturday with the temperature dropping to plus 1 in the afternoon.
Sarnia temperature records Feb. 18 - Feb. 24, 2017
- Feb. 18 18.9 C (66 F) Previous 13.3 C 1949
- Feb. 22 18.5 C (65 F) Previous 11.2 C 1984
- Feb. 23 16.4 C (61 F) Previous 14.2 C 1984
- Feb. 24 17.6 C (64 F) Previous 11.1 C 1958
