Mild December an unexpected boost for Hamilton golf courses

It's just weeks away from Christmas, but the phones are still ringing at Knollwood Golf Club in Ancaster.

"Can you hear them?" officer manager Joanna Fleischmann laughed. "We're getting so many calls."

Unseasonably warm temperatures through November have persisted well into December, with Wednesday's high set at 9 C.

• Balmy November breaks temperature records
• Mild winter on the way, Environment Canada forecasts

That means golfers — who are notorious hounds for a game whenever possible — are out on the green much later this year.

"I don't think we've ever gone this late," Fleischmann said. Knollwood's courses closed down in late November, but reopened because of the demand.

At the end of November, Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson was predicting a mild December with some high single digit temperatures, and it appears he was right.

Environment Canada is calling for temperatures at or around 9 C into next week – though coupled with cloud instead of sun, sadly.

That comes after a record breaking November, where the city broke two heat records dating back to the 1970s at the start of the month. 

But the city hasn't broken any single day records this month, Coulson says — temperatures would have to get up into the 15 C to 16 C range for that.

"The overall trend until at least Christmas Eve is much warmer than normal," he said. The average temperature for this month so far is 2.8 C, which is well above the long term average of – 2.3 C. 

The reigning mildest December on record for Hamilton is 1.6 C from 2006, so if this persists, December could break another record, Coulson said. 

Platform 302 members took the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the sun Wednesday:

And Instagram user Kathy Renwald found these flowers in full bloom on a walk:

All this is a drastic change from last winter, when plummeting temperatures in February 2015 froze Hamilton solid. 

Temperatures were seven or eight degrees below average in Ontario and Quebec – sometimes even 10 degrees below average.