Record breaking heat: Ridgetown breaks 122-year-old record, Windsor breaks 67-year-old record

The community of Ridgetown, Ont. in south-east Chatham-Kent broke a 122-year heat record Tuesday. 

According to Environment Canada meteorologist Gerald Cheng, Ridgetown first set its Oct. 1 heat record in 1897, with the Ridgetown weather station recording a temperature of 28.9 C. 

As of Oct. 1, 2019, however, the record has been surpassed, with Ridgetown station recording a high of 30.3 C. 

Cheng also expanded on previous Oct. 1 records set in Sarnia and Windsor.

The Imperial City set its Oct. 1 heat record in 1980, when Sarnia airport registered 29 C. The city came exceptionally close to matching that record this year, reaching 28.5 C. 

Cheng said it would be difficult for Sarnia to break its all-time Oct. 1 heat record, due to clouds moving in over the region.

"It's not only the heat and the humidity, but it's also the thunderstorms that are developing, and they have developed in parts of southwestern Ontario, notably Sarnia," he said. "So all that cloud cover would prevent the temperature from going up."

Windsor set its Oct. 1 record in 1952, with Windsor airport logging 30 C. That record was broken this year, with a 30.7 C reading at Windsor airport. 

Despite the current hot weather expected for the start of October, Cheng said weather watchers shouldn't "read too much" into near record-breaking heat.

"Fall [is] really a season of big temperature swings, and we've seen that not only in southwestern Ontario, but we have also seen it in Alberta," he said. 

Calgary experienced a blanket of snow this weekend, with the city receiving between 27 and 31 centimetres of snow. 

"This is really the season where these difference air masses battle it out over Canada, and for southwestern Ontario, if warm weather is your thing, well, you've lucked out," Cheng said.