'Tropical new year' in cards as record-breaking warm spell hits Ottawa

A spell of unseasonably warm weather has seen Ottawa break longstanding temperature records for two straight days.

Friday saw temperatures hit 9 C in Ottawa, shattering the previous Dec. 30 high of 6 C recorded at the city's airportin 1990.

Another recordfell Thursday afternoon, as the mercury reached6.9 C. The previous 6.2 C record forDec. 29had stood since 1982.

"It really is quite spectacular...not only how warm it's going to be,but the duration of this kind of winter heat wave," said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Phillips said Ottawa will seeas many days withabove-zerotemperatures through the end of December and into early January as it had days below freezing prior to the warming period.

"[It's] apolar Christmas and a tropical new year," he said. "The look and the feel of winter is disappearing quickly from the Ottawa area."

Rainfall warning issued Friday

That makes flooding in the region a concern, Phillips added, as potentially record-breaking rain may combine withwarm temperaturesto melt the heavy snow pack.

• This towering snowman in Ottawa faces its biggest foe warming weather

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a rainfall warningfor Ottawa Fridayafternoon, warning that 20 to 30 millimetres could fall by Saturday night.

The fact the ground is still frozen makes it harder for that rain to be absorbed, the agency said.

The City of Ottawa said in an email to CBC Thursday that it was already"proactively opening up catch basins" in an effort to give rain and melted snow a place to drain.

"In the coming days, crews will be monitoring areas at risk of localized flooding during winter rainfall events and will be ready to respond to immediate flooding concerns," said Quentin Levesque, the city's director of roads and parking services.

Concerns for Winterlude, Skateway

Gerald Cheng, a meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada,said the high temperatures are due to a warm air mass coming from the Gulf of Mexico.

Cheng said while he expects temperatures to gradually drop, they should stillremain higher than normal through much of January.

Phillips said that could pose problems for Winterlude and theRideau Canal Skateway.

"We clearly see that as a concern, I think, from the tourism and recreation aspects of the Ottawa area," he said.

Environment Canada has been recording temperatures at theOttawa airportsince1938.

But temperature data stretching backto 1873 alsoexists for the city. Prior to 1938,Environment Canada measured temperatures at a site near the Central Experimental Farm,rather than theairport.

Based on thosenumbers, Thursday's heat broke a record that had stood since 1889, while Friday broke the previous record of 8.3 C, set in 1936.