Environment Canada says freezing rain is expected to arrive in the London area early Thursday morning and last through most of the day.
The freezing rain warning, issued just before 1 p.m. on Wednesday, covers London, Komoka, Parkhill and Strathroy, along with eastern and western parts of Middlesex County.
Those areas were previously under a special weather statement that spelt out the possibility of up to five centimetres of snow, but that statement has since been lifted by the national weather agency.
Environment Canada says “freezing rain with ice accretion of a few millimetres” is possible — ice accretion refers to the layer of ice formed on solid objects exposed to freezing precipitation. The weather system is also expected to contain southeasterly wind gusts near 70 kilometres per hour.
The predicted precipitation is expected to begin as freezing rain or ice pellets early Thursday morning through to the afternoon. After that, it will transition to rain or snow before tapering to flurries or drizzle Thursday evening.
As for the wind gusts, they’ll arrive early Thursday morning and are expected to diminish by the late afternoon.
Highways, roads, walkways and parking lots are all prone to becoming slippery from freezing rain and pedestrians are drivers are advised to take extra care when travelling through affected areas.
The Ontario Provincial Police have also issued safety reminders for local drivers ahead of the upcoming weather system, asking them to slow down and adjust their driving to changing conditions, avoid following other vehicles too closely and prepare for bad-weather driving conditions.