Whitehorse temperature records are dropping like flies – just like they are in Dawson City – and it’s no April Fool’s joke.

Thursday’s daytime high of 16.8 C at the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport shattered the previous record set in 1969 by 7.8 degrees.

And if today’s forecast high of 15 C holds true, the standing record of 8.9 C set in 1942, will also fall.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have all set a new benchmark for record highs: Tuesday’s daytime high rose to 12.5, rising above the 10.5 set in 1994; Wednesday’s 10 C beat out the 9.4, also set in 1994.

Meteorologist Lisa Coldwells of Environment Canada said this morning the above-normal temperatures all winter long were a product of two factors.

The El Nino, measured by the ocean temperature taken at the equator off the coast of Peru, tied the previous record set in 1997-98, she pointed out.

“I think the other one is going to have to be climate change, because we are seeing climate change come through with the Arctic, and our Arctic stations warming over time,” she said.

Coldwells said the upper ridge that is bringing the heat is starting to deteriorate, with Saturday’s high forecast at 8 C, though that is still four degrees above normal.

Daytime highs through next week are forecast to stay above normal at an average 7 C while the night time temperatures under clear skys are expected to hover between -5 and -7, she said.

Coldwells said Thursday’s 16.8 C not only set a record for March 31, but also established a new all-time record for the entire month of March, which was 11.7 set on March 22, 1974.

The average temperature for March, combining the daytime highs and nighttime lows but not including yesterday, was -1.5 C.

That was second only to the record average of 0.1 set in 1984, she pointed out.

Normally, Coldwells said, the average temperature in Whitehorse for March is -6.3.

“So you are five degrees above normal for the entire month, which is highly significant.”

Coldwells said the average temperature for December, January and February, defined as the winter months by Environment Canada, was -8.5, the fourth-warmest winter on record. The record of -7.0 was set in 1986-87.

“The winter started off relatively normal,” she said. “It was in February when it really started to warm up. It was also the second-warmest February on record.”

Amazingly, the only time Whitehorse residents experienced temperatures in the -30s this past winter was Christmas time.

Coldwells said back in the fall, scientists were predicting a really strong El Nino, and were waiting to see how long it would be before its influence would hit the North.

“We were expecting to see El Nino to have an effect in late January and early February, and it certainly did.”

While the official recording of Whitehorse weather didn’t start until 1942, Coldwells said, records go back to 1900 for Dawson City, a “signature station” for Environment Canada.

“When we looked at February for Dawson, it came out as the warmest on record, and that’s 116 years of records.”