A blast of winter weather that brought a combination of melted precipitation and snow is causing messy road conditions in the London region Tuesday ahead of a steep drop in temperatures on Wednesday.
Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell says 7.8 mm of precipitation and 6 cm of snow observed at the London International Airport doesn’t reflect what most Londoners will be woke up to.
“There’s a lot of drifting that goes on at the airport, or at any site when there’s a lot of wind… so we got more than that,” he explained, noting parts of the region received upwards of 10 cm.
The snow ended around 11 p.m. Monday night, followed by 2 hours of freezing drizzle which turned into rain as temperatures briefly hit 1 C around 1 a.m. When the precipitation ended, Kimbell says the temperatures started to plummet — dropping 8 degrees to -7 C by 6 a.m.
“It’s supposed to continue to drop,” said Kimbell. Temperatures will fall to -13 C Tuesday afternoon, followed by -21 C feeling like -35 C overnight. Wednesday’s temperatures will hold steady around – 20 C.
“The average high for this time of year is -3 C,” said Kimbell.
“The coldest temperatures in southern Ontario will be in southwestern Ontario, so cold temperatures are flooding in from the west from across Michigan and Wisconsin. Which is a bit unusual, but happens sometimes.”
Late Tuesday morning, Environment Canada issued extreme cold warnings for much of southern Ontario, including London-Middlesex.
The Middlesex London Health Unit issued a cold weather alert on Monday afternoon; it’s expected to remain in place until at least Thursday morning. The health unit is cautioning people against the dangers of arctic-like conditions. Anyone who needs relief can visit the City of London’s drop in warming centres or 24/7 emergency shelters, which offer extra services during cold spells.
Temperatures are expected to start slowly rising towards the end of the week. Thursday’s high is -16 , Friday’s high is -10 C, and even Saturday with a high of -7 C are all “below normal” temperatures for this time of year, explained Kimbell. But Sunday’s high of 1 C is “above normal.”
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