Watch the video above: Waiting for the flood, what can you do to prepare? Sean O’Shea reports.
TORONTO – It’s going to be a wet couple of days across southern Ontario.
Temperatures are set to rise beginning on Wednesday, but along with that are two systems that will merge and bring plenty of rain as well as high winds.
Environment Canada has already issued a special weather statement on the systems.
Rain will begin in southwestern Ontario Thursday afternoon and continue eastward, reaching the GTA by the late afternoon.
Environment Canada is calling for rainfall amounts near 30 to 40 mm for southwestern Ontario toward Kingston. There is also a chance of some embedded thunderstorms. The rain will move out Friday morning.
Ryan Ness, Chief Flood Duty Officer with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority said that they are keeping an eye on the system.
“It depends on how that rain plays out. The temperatures themselves aren’t really high enough to create a lot of melting conditions,” he said. “But if we do get a bunch of rain that is significantly warmer than freezing, it could melt a bunch of that snow, so we might see some elevated flows or some flooding.”
Wednesday the GTA will see the temperature creep up just above 0 C. On Thursday, the city gets a high of 5 C. The warmer temperatures remain near or above 0 C until the cold weather returns early next week.
“We’re keeping a really close eye on the forecast and we’ll make a decision [Wednesday] most likely to put out some kind of warning or message,” Ness said of the impending rain.
Toronto has seen some higher than usual accumulation of snow this winter compared to winters of the recent past. Rather than snowing and then melting, the snow that has fallen has remained on the ground the entire season. As spring rolls in, the conservation authority will continue to monitor the melt.
“Every year plays out a little bit differently but we’re always on alert…But it all depends on how fast it melts when it melts.”
Strong winds are also forecast for some areas with Thursday’s system, particularly along the shores of Lake Ontario. Southerly winds between 30 km/h to 60 km/h are likely with higher gusts, closer to 70 or 80 km/h.
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