‘It's crazy and it's the best thing ever’ Mild winter keeps construction season going

A warmer than usual winter has prolonged construction season for many crews in Windsor-Essex.

“It's crazy and it's the best thing ever,” said Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex director of operations, Pamela Breault. “How can you not be excited on a day like this?”

Breault said workers haven’t stopped at a time typically reserved for a seasonal slowdown, crediting mild temperatures for allowing crews to complete two new builds later this month.

“We're doing things that we can't usually do in February like building decks, Breault explained. “Usually we just have to block the door and you know, wait till the spring but we're like, hey, let's build decks!”

On Tuesday, a handful of workers were adding final touches to two new build sites on Henry Ford Centre Drive. “I'm really happy. I'm excited,” Breault exclaimed. “We just hope that the weather keeps up so that this front porch can thaw and we can actually pour the front porches soon, but if this keeps up, we can do that next week.”

According to Breault, volunteers and officials at Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex are planning to work year round if possible, telling CTV News the hope is to move onto new projects after presenting the keys to two new homeowners in Ford City on Family Day Monday.

“February is usually pretty dark and gloomy and everybody's kind of like, ‘blah!’ Doesn't have any energy left by February. But here we are, and everybody's excited, everybody's working, everybody's smiling and we're so close.” Breault said.

Meantime, the executive director of the Windsor Construction Association, Jim Lyons said recent balmy temperatures are good for some, and not so good for others.

“Because the ground was frozen at one point and now it's not. When you try to get some productivity on a site that's all mushy and wet and mucky, you're kind of spinning your wheels,” he said.

Lyons explained work on new development will wait until winter is officially over, but admits the above seasonal temperatures have allowed crews across the region the ability to do things on projects already underway that typically can’t be done in February.

“This is pretty good stuff,” Lyons said. “We've got some pretty good weather to get a lot of work done.”

“We're getting closer to those times when things are perfect, but these little bonus days in the middle of what's supposed to be a cold winter are certainly welcome.”

Officials at Environment Canada and Climate Change said a southerly flow of wind from the Gulf of Mexico was the reason for the recent warm spell, warning residents that winter weather will return.

“Don't be misled by these mild temperatures because remember we are in Canada after all and snow can still happen in April,” said warning preparedness meteorologist, Gerald Cheng. “And of course these the mild trends they do come to an end at some point and towards the end of next week already. We do see some very normal temperatures coming back for the long run.”

Cheng noted while the weather is currently warm, it was warmer nearly 70 years ago when the warm weather record was set.

“The warmest was Valentine's Day was actually in 1954 with 12.2 degrees,” Cheng said. “And if we look at February 15, Wednesday, you know the warmest February 15 was 1954. Once again, it was a very warm mid-February, 18.3 degrees. So you know looking at the forecast, we won't be breaking a record on Wednesday.”