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Environment Canada has issued it’s monthly weather summary for the first month of 2026. January delivered colder-than-usual conditions across most of Ontario, extending a pattern of widespread below-normal temperatures for a second straight month.
According to provincial climate data, only the northernmost reaches of the Far North recorded temperatures slightly above seasonal norms. Elsewhere, much of the province experienced sustained cold, with the sharpest departures found in southwestern Ontario from the London area to Windsor, where average monthly temperatures ran more than two degrees Celsius below normal.
Despite the overall chill, January featured notable swings. After a cold opening, temperatures moderated during the first week and into the second, culminating in an unseasonable warm spell on Jan. 8 and 9. During that period, numerous daily high-temperature records were broken, with readings climbing to around 15 C in the Greater Toronto Area and parts of southwestern Ontario.
Several communities experienced extreme lows, with record-setting cold reported on Jan. 24. In northeastern Ontario, Kirkland Lake saw temperatures plunge to minus 43.7 C, highlighting the severity of the late-month cold snap.
(Richard Evans)