Workweek Outlook: Has our weather become the frog in the pot of boiling water?

"If you put a frog in boiling hot water, it would jump out. But put it in cold water, and heat it up gradually, it would slowly boil to death." This apologue from the movie Dantes Peak has stuck with me for years, and for me, it explains human behaviour when it comes to slowly evolving risk. After living through this winter in the Sault - I ask you, do you feel the water getting warmer?

We head into a week by not only breaking a 59-year-old high-temperature record but smashing it by a country mile. We will then see conditions 'cool off' to values still five degrees above the current 30-year climate period. This unprecedented heat follows a February warmer than a typical March and an early winter that more resembles fall.

Breaking weather records here and there is nothing more than happen-stance and in line with expectations. Breaking multiple records over an extended time (whole season) with the same bias (warm in this case) is more than a blip - it's a pattern of behaviour, a trend. It might be time to change our expectations for the future of Sault weather and adapt to a new reality that might take another 30-year climate period to define.

Monday will be cloudy with patchy morning fog. Daytime highs should climb to record-smashing +10°C, with showers starting later this afternoon and 5-10mm of rainfall this evening.

Tuesday will become sunny, but a cooler northwest wind will drop afternoon temperatures to near +6°C. Sunshine continues into Wednesday and Thursday, with daytime highs again near +6°C. The average daily high for the first week of March should be closer to -1°C each day.

Clouds move back into the region on Friday with a chance of light rain. Temperatures are forecasted to remain closer to +5°C.