A part of northwestern Ontario saw heavy snow on Thursday that resulted in several downed trees and a community-wide power outage.
Pickle Lake, which is more than seven hours north of Thunder Bay, saw about 10 centimetres of snow, township clerk-treasurer Jamie Hussey told Global News.
“It is melting,” Hussey said of the snow Friday.
“We still have a couple piles here and there… and there’s still some snow on a few roofs.”
Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell said Pickle Lake experienced a record snowfall for the date of June 11. He noted it’s not unheard of for snow to fall at this time of year in northwestern Ontario.
Farnell said the snowfall came as part of a severe weather system that resulted in tornadoes in southern Ontario earlier in the week, adding it intensified as it moved north.
“It also ushered in much colder temperatures which happened to be just cold enough for snow on the backside of the system for places like Pickle Lake,” he said.
“Temperatures will rebound by the end of the weekend and 30-degree heat is likely there by the middle of next week.”
The northwestern Ontario township lost electricity for much of the day Thursday and saw several fallen trees, but Hussey said there wasn’t any known damage to homes or infrastructure.
“It wasn’t very favourable for flying with the visibility and just the possibility of icing, so they had to wait off a little bit longer in the day before they were able to get out and perform that repair.”
As of Friday afternoon, Environment Canada reported Pickle Lake’s temperature to be 12 C.