Indication of how cold it's been

Great lake ice is highest on record, going back 35 years anyway.

Recent warm weather...

Before anybody starts claiming climate change, here are the record highs:

Oct. 13: 26.3C in 1995 (2014: 17.1C)
Oct. 14: 24.4C in 1956 (2014: 26.0C, a new record)
Oct. 15: 25.6C in 1956 (2014: 23.5C)
Oct. 16: 26.7C in 1947 (!) (I doubt we are getting anywhere close to that high today)
Oct. 17: 26.7C in 1947(another one!)
Oct. 18: 26.1C in 1947

Apparently October 1956 and 1947 were warm ones in Ottawa...

Fun fact about August 12th...

Temperature records in Ottawa for this date:

Lowest Temperature (1939-2011) 6.7°C         1946
Highest Temperature (1939-2011)  35.0°C     1947

Fun data tidbits

A couple daily records might fall today, low temp and snowfall.  Those current records are:

-8.9C set in 1943
2.4 cm of snow set in 2007

Now I don't think today's temperature record will fall but it's already -2C so who knows.  More likely is that tomorrow's record of -8.3C (set in 1939 and 1943) will be broken in the early morning tomorrow.

If you think you have it bad now, just think in 1971 there was still 15 cms of snow on the ground.

In case you were wondering...

Ottawa Airport broke a 74 year record yesterday.   Yesterday's measured low temperature of -20.1C broke the March 24th -20.0 C record set in 1940.

We also broke a 53 year record on March 17th.  Old Mar. 17 record was -20.6C in 1961. In 2014 we measured -21.6C.

But do we hear that in the media?  Me thinks not.