Warm winter wrap up paves way for snowy start to spring

The short sleeves and even some shorts were broken out in Waterloo Region Wednesday as temperatures climbed to 20C.

The last day of winter was one of the warmest Waterloo Region had seen in a while, but not a record breaker.

In 2012, temperatures warmed up to 24C on March 19 during an unprecedented warm spell that saw eight days in row with temperatures between 20C and 26.5C!

Before that, the warmest it got in Waterloo Region on a March 19 was in 1938 when temperatures rose to 19.4C.

By 2 p.m. Wednesday this time around, it was already 19.8C; by 4 p.m. the daytime high of 20.8C was hit.

The summer-like heat was felt across most of southern Ontario with Guelph warming up to 20.6C and some areas of Hamilton getting as warm as 22.8C.

The hottest was in the Town of Lincoln in the Niagara Region at 23.3C.

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The summer-like warmth won’t be sticking around though, with snow possible over the first weekend of spring.

570 NewsRadio Meteorologist Jill Taylor says the new season will start a bit unsettled before a stretch of colder air next week.

“Don’t put the parka away just yet, Sunday night into Monday, we could see 3 cm maybe as much as 7 cm of wet snow early Monday morning, more flurries on Monday as well,” she said.

The first day of spring, which began Thursday morning at 5:01 a.m., comes with milder temperatures in the early morning, cooling down to an afternoon high around 4C.