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Environment Canada is forecasting yet another rain system to sweep through northwestern Ontario beginning on Wednesday evening (May 11, 2022).
They are predicting local rainfall amounts could be anywhere from 25-50 mm over the next two days.
“We are looking at more unsettled weather, more rain, really two rounds of rain,” says Gerald Cheng, Environment Canada Meteorologist. “The first round will come tonight, so starting this evening going into Thursday morning (May 12, 2022).”
“Another round from Thursday evening into Friday morning (May 13, 2022),” adds Cheng.
Cheng explains that not all the areas in the region are going to get the higher expected amounts of rain, due to the systems being unstable.
“We’re talking about showers and thunderstorms. With thunderstorms, they’re very isolated in nature, that means that some neigbourhoods might get the 50 [mm], some neighbourhoods might not get much at all.”
Severe thunderstorm watches are issued when atmospheric conditions are favourable for the development of thunderstorms that could produce one or more of the following: large hail, damaging winds, or torrential rainfall.
“There are other threats associated with severe thunderstorms such as damaging winds, wind gusts over 90km/h, and of course sizable hail that could be beyond 2 cm, or more than nickel-sized hail. Of course, we can’t eliminate the possibility of tornadoes, especially close to the US border.”
Though the region is expected to get hit with more rain, Cheng adds that at least the temperatures are going to be in the seasonal average for this time of the year.
“The seasonal high should be around 17 degrees, at least for the next few days we’re going to be slightly above or even around the season. As we look ahead of the ladder parts of the weekend, we might see a dip in temperatures.”
So far only 11 days into the month of May the Kenora area has received 53.3 mm of rain, which is inching close to the 80.8 mm average for the month. Over the last three weeks, the area has seen 108.7 mm of rainfall.
The increased rain and snowmelt have caused flooding concerns for most of northwestern Ontario. On Monday, the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources, and Forestry issued a flood warning for the Dryden District.
Also, a number of highways and roadways in the region have been washout causing some residents to be cut off, or very limited with their travel.