The first day back to work following the Canada Day long weekend is likely to be a wet and stormy one for much of southwestern Ontario.
Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Elgin County late Tuesday afternoon, while a severe thunderstorm watch was in effect for London-Middlesex for most of the day on Tuesday. All thunderstorm watches and warnings ended just before midnight.
According to the national weather agency, showers and thunderstorms with the potential to drop up to 50 millimetres of rain moved across the region Tuesday afternoon. Following the initial band of wet weather, Geoff Coulson, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the weather activity moving over lower Michigan could result in severe thunderstorms for southwestern Ontario by Tuesday evening.
"[There's] a chance that some of these thunderstorms could become severe with heavy downpour, perhaps even some strong wind gusts up to 90-100 kilometres an hour," said Coulson.
The sunshine returns Wednesday, with Environment Canada forecasting a mainly sunny day with a high of 30 C.
A heat warning remains in effect for Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent as the humidity is making it feel closer to 40 C in that area. Coulson said the heat event could stick around for the next five days as a cold front isn't expected to move through the area until Saturday. However, looking ahead to next week Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent should see more seasonal temperatures.
"It looks like seasonal temperatures are likely going to be the rule for most of the rest of the month," he said. "It certainly doesn't mean we won't get more heat events where the temperature could spike up two, three, four days in a row but overall it looks like the trend will be generally seasonal temperatures in both Windsor and Chatham-Kent."
Coulson said it was just last year that the area had been under a heat warning for seven consecutive days, also over the Canada Day long weekend.
"We don't have to go that far back in time to see a stretch of whether that was actually consistently warmer than what we're seeing right now," he said.
Since severe thunderstorm watches or warnings are possible for late Tuesday afternoon, Coulson said residents can monitor their Twitter feed to find updated storm outlooks for the area.
