CAPTURED IN COLOUR
Tere Deslippe of Blenheim photographs the blooming tulips at Coventry Gardens in Windsor on Wednesday, when temperatures reached a high of 15 C. Cooler weather is at hand with the forecast calling for the thermometer to dip to -3 C by Friday night.
It’s finally May in Windsor-essex — but don’t put away your winter clothes just yet.
Weather watchers are predicting this Friday will bring freezing cold to the region: A possible nighttime low of -3 C (26 F). There’s even a 40 per cent chance of flurries, according to Environment Canada.
If the forecast proves to be correct, it’ll be the coldest May 8 in Windsor-essex in all the time that Environment Canada has kept weather data on the region.
The last time we had a May 8 so cold was 74 years ago, in 1946, when thermometers sank to -1.1 C (30 F). Even for the Midwest — a part of the continent known for unpredictable springs — it’s a dramatic turn. Just last weekend, Windsor enjoyed summer-like conditions, with a high temperature of 22 C (71.5 F).
Over the border, Accuweather is envisioning similar record-breaking mercury readings in Detroit, as a cold snap extends over much of the eastern U.S.
According to Accuweather, the weather pattern is “more fitting of early March” and “an unusually late taste of winter for this time of year.”
What’s to blame for such capricious conditions? Accuweather’s Paul Pastelok said there’s a lobe of the polar vortex that has spun southward and looped around the Great Lakes.
As the middle of the month approaches, this weather pattern will continue to shift northwest over Canada, Pastelok said.
But at least Windsor-essex won’t be alone. The Weather Network says much of southern Ontario is in the same unusual boat.
If the polar vortex stays true to form, parts of the region could see “one of their top-10 coldest May days on record Friday and Saturday,” advised The Weather Network.
But how can it get so cold with plenty of spring sunlight to go around? The answer is that this lobe of the polar vortex is a phenomenon happening far above the surface of the Earth, in a part of the atmosphere called the “tropopause.”
According to The Weather Network, when the cold air crosses over our area on Friday, it’ll be roughly eight kilometres up in the sky.
Daytime highs of 17 C (62 F) are predicted for Windsor-essex on Thursday.