Northwestern Ontario is tracking to break a 98-year-old weather record this weekend.
Another low-pressure weather system is moving through the southern Manitoba area this weekend, bringing an estimated 20 to 50 millimetres of rain to the already water-logged area.
Environment Canada is now projecting that a section of that system will hit the Kenora area, and residents can expect up to another 20 millimetres of rainfall to finish off the month. The rain is expected to begin tonight and continue into Monday.
“More rain in store for northwestern Ontario, but the worst of it will be over Manitoba,” explains Environment Canada Meteorologist, Peter Kimbell. “20 mm more, not the worst by any stretch. It shouldn’t be too bad. But we have seen a lot [of rain] so far. Definitely more than average.”
Northwestern Ontario had already broken a 62-year-old weather record this month. Between April 1 to April 25, over 99 mm of both rain and snow fell in the Kenora area, breaking 1957’s record of 95 mm.
Kimbell says if we get the expected 20 mm of rain this weekend, we’ll have seen about 120 mm of rain this month, which would shatter 1924’s record of 112 mm.
This month’s amount of rain is already causing issues locally. The Municipalities of Fort Frances and Emo have both declared State of Emergencies due to flooding on local roadways, and outflows on Lake of the Woods have been increased a number of times to control lake levels.
But after the rain, Kimbell says the area can expect temperatures to continue to warm up as we head into early May, even though the region has been seeing below-average temperatures this month.