Wet, mild New Year’s Eve forecast for London

The last day of 2018 is gearing up to be a wet one in the Forest City.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for London and the surrounding areas, calling for a significant amount of rainfall.

According to the weather agency, rain will move into southwestern Ontario on Monday morning and spread eastward to reach the Golden Horseshoe in the afternoon.

“We have a fairly major system down over the central United States and that is heading northeastward towards Southern Ontario,” said meteorologist Glen Robinson.

“For the London area we’re expecting some showers to move in around noon Monday and then we’re expecting some fairly heavy rainfall between about 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.,” he said.

With so much rain falling around rush hour, Robison said visiblity will be poor and is asking everyone to be extra cautious on the roads.

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“In the rain and in the dark, visibility is quite poor, and we often see pedestrian crashes when the weather is like this,” he said.

The rain may fall heavily at times, with amounts reaching up to 25 millimetres, but by midnight Robinson said the rain should taper off into scattered showers.

“When we change over into the new year, it won’t be a steady rain, but there will be a few downpours and it will be dry some of the time.”

“After that the system will move out and then we’re looking at three or four days of very calm and quiet weather across the region,” he said.

Robinson also warned of localized ponding of water in areas with poor drainage.

Also covered in the statement are Parkhill, Strathroy, Komoka and Eastern and Western Middlesex County.

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Meantime, while it is going to be a rainy start to the New Year, Robinson said it will also be mild one.

“We’re expecting temperatures up above freezing Monday. It’s actually going to continue to get warmer as the day wears on. We’re looking at temperatures up to about 6 C by 7 p.m., by midnight, it may be closer to 8 C,” he said.

As for the first few days of 2019, Robinson said London can expect temperatures to hover around the freezing mark until Sunday.