Environment Canada issued a special weather statement Tuesday morning advising of rainfall that could reach 15 to 25 millimetres or more today.

The weather statement was issued for Windsor and Essex County along with Chatham-Kent and Rondeau Park.

It said to expect scattered showers with isolated thunderstorms Tuesday.

“Local rainfall amounts of 15 to 25 mm are expected with higher amounts possible in heavier showers and thunderstorms,” the release said.

The high is expected to be 24 Celsius today. Fog patches could develop overnight and there is a 30 per cent chance of rain Wednesday.

shill@postmedia.com

twitter.com/winstarhill

Windsor’s stifling heat wave shattered records over the weekend, and there’s more hot, humid weather expected for Monday.

A 72-year-old record fell Saturday when the mercury hit 31 C. The previous record for Sept. 23 was 30.6 C recorded back in 1945. The same temperature was recorded again in 1959.

The oppressive heat continued Sunday, breaking another record. The temperature at 4 p.m. Sunday was 31.3 C. The previous record for Sept. 25, set in 2007, was 30.5.

Environment Canada forecasters said the area could also set a new record Monday as the hot weather continues into the week. Environment Canada is forecasting a high of 31 C. The current record for Sept. 25 is 30.8 C, set in 2007.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit issued a heat warning for Saturday and Sunday, urging people to take precautions.

A heat warning goes out when there are two consecutive days forecasted to hit 31 C or more in the daytime and at least 21 C at night.

The health unit said there are several ways people can protect themselves from heat illness, including drinking lots of water and taking a cool bath or shower.

You can also limit outdoor activities to the coolest part of the day. When you do go outside, wear sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat and lightweight, loose-fitting clothing.

Never leave pets or people in parked cars. The health unit also suggests arranging regular visits to family members, neighbours or friends who might be vulnerable in the extreme heat.

If you don’t have an air conditioner at home, keep drapes and blinds closed on the sunny side of your home. The health unit also suggests finding an air-conditioned place, such as a library or mall, where you can cool off for a few hours.

Need some relief from the heat in Windsor-Essex? Environment Canada‘s weather watchers says it will be here Thursday — but you’ll have to endure more sweltering conditions until then.

Although we’re less than a week away from October, the region has been feeling a lot like July lately, thanks to record-breaking temperatures and unseasonable humidity.

“We’ve finally got a pattern set up in the atmosphere that we’d normally see in July or August — a large area of pressure anchoring itself to the south of the lower Great Lakes, acting like a giant heat pump,” said Environment Canada senior meteorologist Geoff Coulson. 

On Monday, a heat warning remained in effect for Windsor-Essex, with thermometers climbing to 31 C and humidex values exceeding 40.

The situation is expected to continue Tuesday.

Wednesday’s high is forecast to reach 29 C, but with a 40 per cent chance of showers.

“There will be a fairly dramatic difference in the temperature and humidity levels on Thursday,” Coulson predicted.

According to Environment Canada, a cold front will be moving across southern Ontario by then, lowering temperature as it goes.

By Thursday, Windsor-Essex temperatures should be back to their normal range for this time of the year: 10 to 20 C.

The last time a Sept. 25 was this hot in Windsor-Essex was 10 years ago, in 2007, when the mercury reached 30.8 C.

The region’s coldest Sept. 25 on record was in 1942, when thermometers sank to 1.1 C — just above freezing.

Asked if we might draw some conclusions about climate change from our recent spate of eccentric weather, Coulson cautioned that “it’s difficult to relate a single event like this to a longer-term phenomenon.”

However, Coulson added that he’s been studying Windsor-Essex records and it’s hard to find a stretch of weather “this warm, for this long, this late in the season.”

“In previous Septembers, we’ve had a day here and a day there where we’ve gotten really warm temperatures. But not to see something like this — day after day after day. It’s certainly a rare event.”

At least one group is seriously concerned about a connection between unseasonable heat and climate change. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario sent out a statement on Monday calling for the provincial government to make air conditioning mandatory in elementary schools.

“Our changing climate is sending a strong message that the Ministry of Education needs to take action,” said ETFO president Sam Hammond in a release.

“Too much student learning will be lost the longer the ministry delays.”

According to the ETFO, soaring temperatures are subjecting students and teachers to “unbearable conditions” in Ontario classrooms.

That’s why the federation believes all elementary schools should have a heat stress plan, maximum indoor temperature limits, and air conditioning or “heat reduction systems.”

“While we recognize that air conditioning can be expensive, there are significant costs in not fixing the problem,” Hammond argued.

The fall season officially arrived Friday at 4:02 p.m.

dchen@postmedia.com

Swans swim in the Detroit River near LaSalle on an abnormally hot afternoon on Sept. 25, 2017.

High winds and threats of thunderstorms forced the cancellation of the second night of the LaSalle Craft Beer Festival Saturday.

The tented affair held on the grounds of the Vollmer Culture and Recreation Complex was called off around 7 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Environment Canada issued a high-wind alert for Windsor and Essex County thanks to a cold front that moved into the area.

Tickets that were pre-sold for the Saturday event will be refunded.

Visit the Town of LaSalle website at www.lasalle.ca and social media pages for refund information.

jkotsis@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JulieKotsis

The WonderBroads dragon boat team capped off the 2017 racing season with a silver medal at the recent Dublin Regatta in Ireland.

The team of local breast cancer survivors battled cold temperatures, heavy rain and wind at the Grand Canal Dock in posting a second-best time of one minute 9.62 seconds over 200 metres.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather alert for Windsor, Essex County and Chatham-Kent, warning of strong winds gusting up to 80 km/h.

The big blow is expected to peak through Tuesday. The winds will start Monday night, with gusts up to 80 km/h by Tuesday morning. Locally, the strongest gusts will be along the Lake Erie shoreline.

The winds are expected to ease by Wednesday morning.

The cold weather is fast approaching and with it, the geese and swans that take up residence in local sheltered waters. Feeding these birds is a popular local occurrence but many don’t realize they are actually doing harm by their goodwill gesture.

Many choose bread and other processed grain products and this is causing a problem called Angel Wing. More info on this can be found on the Jack Miner website.

Suggested alternatives include barley and similar grains.

Please don’t feed bread to the migratory birds. You will be doing them more harm than good.

Dean Boufford, Windsor

Share Your Views

Send letters to the editor to letters@windsorstar.com. (Don’t send them as attachments; put them in the body of the emails.) Letters must include your full name, address and phone number. (We will only publish your name and the municipality where you live.) Letters must be fewer than 300 words. The Star reserves the right to edit, condense and reject letters.

The Essex Region Conservation Authority has issued a flood watch for Windsor and Essex County until Monday morning. 

Periods of moderate to heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected through Sunday afternoon and into the night. Rainfall totals are expected to range between 20 to 30 mm with the potential for higher amounts in isolated thunderstorms. ERCA said those totals are in addition to the 15 to 25 mm of rainfall that has fallen throughout most of Windsor and Essex County over the last 24 hours. The isolated thunderstorms can also include wind gusts up to 65 km/hr and hail. 

The potential for flooding exists throughout the region and especially in low lying areas based on the current ground conditions. Also, due to the chance of high intensity isolated thunderstorms there is potential for flooding and drainage problems throughout the region and especially in urban areas. 

People are reminded to take extra care and avoid rivers, ditches, streams and shoreline areas. The combination of slippery banks and fast moving water can be extremely dangerous. Strong winds can also result in lake waves overtopping breakwalls/shorelines. 

Rain is in store for Windsor-Essex — and potentially a lot of it.

Environment Canada’s weather offices issued a special weather statement for our region on Friday morning, advising of the possibility of heavy rainfall persisting into Saturday.

According to the federal agency’s meteorologists, total rainfall amounts of 25 to 40 millimetres are likely.

Other regions of southwestern Ontario stretching from Sarnia to Caledonia are also subject to the statement.

For Windsor-Essex, meteorologists predicted the rain to begin late Friday and to continue through Saturday morning, tapering off by Saturday evening.

At last reckoning, there was a 40 per cent chance of more rain on Sunday.

The cause of the precipitation is a low pressure system that’s crossing the lower Great Lakes.

Saturday’s wet weather forced the rescheduling of Amherstburg’s River Lights Winter Festival opening ceremony and Kingsville’s Santa Claus parade.

The opening ceremony for River Lights was pushed to Sunday.

Event location and times remain the same, just pushed back a day.

Among Sunday’s attractions: movie at Town Square and cookie decorating at Toddy Jones Park at 5 p.m.; tree lighting at Town Square.

Fireworks to be determined at a later date.

Santa doesn’t seem to mind the rain — the Essex Region Conservation SUPER Santa Run is still a go on Saturday at 5 p.m.

The Telus interactive playground and Gingerbread Warming House are also open at 5 p.m. today at Toddy Jones Park.

Soggy weather also forced postponement of Kingsville’s Santa Claus Parade and fireworks to Dec. 8. 

Want to be ready for winter in Windsor-Essex? Then keep your gloves, shovels, and ice scrapers handy. The Weather Network is predicting colder and snowier conditions than normal for our region in the coming months.

“You guys will fall under what we’re expecting to be above-normal precipitation,” said Brad Rousseau, a meteorologist for The Weather Network. “We’re expecting an active storm track into the Great Lakes basin.”

The Weather Network released its national outlook for Winter 2017-18 on Monday, forecasting a “classic Canadian winter” in Ontario and Quebec — with above-average snowfall across the central and southern regions.

Rousseau said Windsor-Essex typically sees 96 centimetres of total snowfall over the months of December, January and February, with daily highs averaging out to just under 1 C (34 F) and lows averaging to -6 C (21 F).

“Temperature-wise, we’re expecting it should be near to maybe just below the seasonal mark,” Rousseau said.

Before you complain, let’s appreciate that even when we get more snow than usual, Windsor-Essex still has some of the lightest winters in Canada.

In London, for example — just a two-hour drive away — the typical total snowfall over the same three-month period is 135 cm, with an average high of -0.5 C (31 F) and an average low of -8 C (17.6 F).

However, sometimes being further south works against us. “Even though we’re expecting above-normal snowfall, you still could see a fair amount of rain — and potentially a few freezing rain events,” Rousseau advised.

A pair of walkers endure the cold to get some exercise on Windsor’s Riverfront trails on Nov. 10, 2017.

The good news is that there should be a bit of a reprieve mid-winter. Rousseau said most of Ontario including Windsor will see a thaw period around late January to early February, followed by a winter comeback.

“I have my doubts it will be as warm as spring, but there will be a period where we’re trending above seasonal,” Rousseau promised. “Then we’ll have another shot of below-seasonal, and another active storm period.”

Of course, there’s a scientific explanation for all this prognostication. The Weather Network foresees the phenomenon known as La Nina this winter — i.e., cooler than average water temperatures in central and eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean. It’s the cold counterpart to El Nino.

Hallmarks of La Nina include harsher winters for Canada’s western provinces and sometimes Ontario, along with wetter conditions on the west coast and near the Great Lakes.

“The tricky thing with La Nina is there’s no specific pattern that locks in for a long period of time. You’ll get a period of cold, balanced out with a period of warmth, and so on,” Rousseau said.

But let’s be real: With months of winter weather ahead of us, what Windsorites really want to know is when we’ll be able to wear shorts again.

“That’s a difficult question to answer this far out,” Rousseau admitted. “Given the fact that we expect winter to end off cooler and stormier, we could see it linger into March. But I can’t say with any confidence what to expect, length-wise.”

dchen@postmedia.com

High winds from the south and southwest prompted the Essex Region Conservation Authority to issue an advisory Monday night concerning the Lake Erie shoreline.

Residents are being warned to use extra caution and avoid shoreline areas during high winds and waves where there could be slippery banks and waves crashing over breakwalls, and to keep children, pets and livestock away from the shoreline and breakwalls.

The forecast is predicting winds of 40 to 45 km/h with gusts of 70 km/h from the south/southwest Monday night and Tuesday. The wind direction could switch to coming from the west/southwest Tuesday, the conservation authority said.

Although the lake levels are below flood watch criteria, the conservation authority said the situation could cause shoreline erosion and breakwall damage.

The shorelines on Lake Erie affected by the winds include the western shoreline of Point Pelee National Park, the shorelines of Leamington, Kingsville, Essex and Amherstburg and the south and west shorelines of Pelee Island.

The advisory is in effect until Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Tuesday’s forecast calls for rain and a high of 8 C with the temperature dropping in the afternoon to 2 C. The low is expected to be -4. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are expected to bring a mix of sun and clouds but the temperatures will be colder with a high of -1 and -4CFriday. There’s a chance of flurries by the weekend.

Widespread accumulating snow is likely for this afternoon and evening for Windsor-Essex, says a special weather statement by Environment Canada.

Issued just before 5 a.m. Monday, the statement advises of five to 10 centimetres of general snowfall by Tuesday morning.

Meteorologists expect the snow will begin for the Windsor-Essex region Monday afternoon, tapering off late tonight.

Leamington and Chatham-Kent will also be affected.

Motorists should expect poor winter driving conditions. Be ready for slippery, snow-covered roadways.

What’s to blame for the inclement weather? Meteorologists point to an Alberta Clipper — a fast-moving low pressure area — that’s sailing across Southern Ontario Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Localized snowfall amounts higher than 10 centimetres are possible, but weather watchers don’t expect the snowfall will reach 15 centimetres within 24 hours — which is Environment Canada’s threshold for a snowfall warning.

Some home delivery of the Windsor Star is delayed today due to weather conditions.

The record-setting snowfall for Dec. 13 — a total of 15.6 centimetres on Wednesday — was followed by more of the white stuff early this morning.

As a result of poor road conditions, vehicles were slowed, though delivery continues.

Windsor has made Environment Canada’s national list of Top 10 weather events in 2017 for the massive storm in late August — the second “storm of a century” in less than a year — that left flooding and huge financial losses in its wake.

Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips said Windsor, which was in fifth position, is the only city to make the list. All others were regional events.

As for the 100-year-storm moniker — that’s a misnomer. Phillips said these massive storms are now occurring about every 10 years on average.

The fact that there were two multi-million dollar floods in less than a year puts us ahead of the curve.

“That is really what we’re seeing, not just in Windsor, we’re seeing these hundred-year events are coming out to be 10-year events,” Phillips said. “In this case, this could have just been bad luck. We may not see another one for 25 years in the Windsor area.

“But I wouldn’t bet on it.”

In less than 48 hours, storm rainfall totalled 222 millimetres in southwest Windsor, 141 to 158 mm in the Riverside area, 150 to 200 mm in Tecumseh, a record 100 mm at Windsor Airport and Essex recorded 190 mm. LaSalle was hardest hit with 125 mm of rain on Aug. 28 and another 160 mm the next day — 285 mm in 32 hours.

That ranks as one of the wettest moments in Canadian history, Phillips said.

“The figure at LaSalle was just a head shaker — 285 millimeters in 32 hours — that’s clearly what you’d get in a tropical rainstorm,” he said.

“It was almost as if the system was so stationary it just hung out,” Phillips said. “What stood out for me was the fact that if you took the individual weather event, it was the costliest … in Canada this year.”

There were 6,200 insurance claims totalling more than $154 million. For weather events inflicting property losses across Canada in 2017, the Windsor flood was the most expensive, he said.

“But we know that insurance is really a fraction of what the total cost of the event is,” Phillips said, adding in general terms insurance costs are only 10 to 30 per cent of the overall damage expenses.

That’s because some people don’t have insurance or they chose to pay for the damage themselves, government grants cover some of the cost or the damage may not be covered by insurance.

But Windsor wasn’t the only place in Canada to be hit by challenging weather.

British Columbia endured its longest and most destructive wildfire season, forcing thousands of residents from their homes. Record-breaking heat hit the west, while spring flooding caused damage in Quebec and eastern Ontario.

Winter was mild across Canada — the seventh warmest in 70 years — with only British Columbia experiencing colder-than-normal temperatures. But the east coast endured late season blizzards, featuring shrieking gales, humongous snows and freezing rain.

Phillips said property damage from weather extremes cost Canadian insurers and governments millions of dollars and the economy billions. Insurers took a major hit from storms to the tune of $1.3 billion from 113,000 claims.

So what can we expect in 2018?

“My fearless forecast would be, well it will be a colder winter coming up,” Phillips said. Last year Windsor had more rain that snow — about 80 per cent of the winter precipitation was rain and the average temperature was a degree and a half to two degrees warmer than normal.

“In Windsor, you have your share of severe weather, which always tops the news and so my hope would be a very boring year (that) you could count on seasonable weather — what our parents and grandparents told us about, summers were hot and winters were cold,” he said. “It’s almost as if normal weather doesn’t exist anymore. It’s almost like one swing of the pendulum to the other.

“I think the weather will still be the number one conversation piece. It always is.”

jkotsis@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JulieKotsis

Environment Canada is warning the roads could turn icy overnight as light snow this afternoon turns to freezing drizzle after midnight.

“Latest indications suggest snowfall amounts of two centimetres or less will accumulate. The most significant impact may be due to the patchy freezing drizzle which is likely to develop after midnight and continue through Friday,” Environment Canada says.

“Some rain or drizzle is possible near the Lake Erie shore in areas where the temperature manages to nudge just above the zero degree mark.”

The weather may make the Friday morning commute slow and messy. Motorists are advised to plan for extra time to reach their destinations.

The bad weather — stretching from Windsor and Essex County through Chatham-Kent and Rondeau Park — is expected to taper off Friday afternoon.

ssacheli@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/WinStarSacheli

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for the Windsor area, promising a white Christmas and some nasty driving conditions.

The weather service said Sunday that as much as 15 cm of snow will fall across Southern Ontario.

“So, for those dreaming of a white Christmas, you will get your wish,” Environment Canada said in the statement Sunday morning. “A Texas low is gathering strength this morning and will race towards us approaching the speed of Rudolph later today. It will transport snow into Southern Ontario beginning this afternoon. As the low pressure centre dashes just south of the lower Great Lakes tonight, snow will intensify across Southern Ontario this evening.”

Forecasters said visibility will be limited in many areas, causing problems for drivers. They encouraged people to adjust travel plans it possible.  

With the windchill at -14C, downtown Windsor on Friday afternoon was a bit warmer than in previous days, but still cold enough that a steady stream of folks was drawn to the indoor warmth and free hot coffee at Street Help’s drop-in centre for the homeless.

Street Help doesn’t operate a shelter at its 964 Wyandotte St. E. location, but on nights like this week’s, those living on Windsor’s streets are ushered in and welcome to spend the night. Mats and mattresses are laid out on the floor and usually up to 10 men have a dry and warm place to sleep.

“It’s just too dangerous not to let them stay,” said Street Help executive director Christine Wilson-Furlonger.

At the Downtown Mission, there’s the same emergency policy. Despite a recent shelter expansion to 103 beds, the facility is frequently filled up, but executive director Ron Dunn said mats are being spread out on the floor to accommodate visitor overflows when the mercury plummets.

“We’re not turning anyone away, not in this weather, for sure,” he said, adding some recent overnight temperatures were in the -25C range, factoring in the windchill.

“It’s terrifying out there — people would literally die,” said Wilson-Furlonger, herself no stranger to living in the street.

Ali Abdullah was one of those who came in out of the cold, thankful Street Help has “let me stay here for now.”

Abdullah, 26, said he’s been homeless for the past month, ever since his uncle moved to Leamington to operate a store and he no longer had a place to stay in the city. After couch-surfing with friends, on Thursday night he was allowed to crash at Street Help, where the choice of offerings is either the floor or the café benches. On Friday afternoon, one of those benches was occupied by a sleeping man who was brought in by a volunteer one night after having been discovered sleeping on the sidewalk outside.

“Once they’re inside, they’re OK — they like to be inside,” said Anthony Nelson, who has volunteered at Street Help the past four years. He expected up to 10 of Windsor’s homeless to spend the night.

“We’re encouraging people to come to us and to stay indoors as much as possible,” said Dunn. The Mission’s doors are usually closed at 1 a.m., but “when it’s really cold, we make exceptions.”

Dunn encourages anyone who spots someone appearing in need of help and wandering the streets in the bitter cold to call the police or emergency services. “Someone with mental health issues might not have the mental capacity to get in out of the cold,” he said.

Despite record-cold local temperatures, there are still those who remain outside. Nelson said one man came into Street Help earlier on Friday and asked for a sleeping bag for his buddy sleeping under a bridge in the west end. “We gave him a heavy-duty sleeping bag.”

In the 2018 municipal budget deliberations in January, city administration is seeking $67,000 in new funding to hire a second street outreach worker to identify and connect with the local homeless. A staff report estimates a 35-per-cent increase in demand for homelessness services in 2017, with an upward trend forecast to continue in the new year.

“The numbers have exploded,” said Wilson-Furlonger. But she said she would rather have any new government funding go towards providing actual places to live.

“They need affordable, healthy and stable housing,” she said. “Getting social workers out there is not going to fix the situation — housing is going to fix the situation.”

Ottawa recently announced it was investing $40 billion over 10 years to combat chronic homelessness in Canada, and Windsor housing advocates are hoping for a local share. But Windsor and Essex County were shut out from the $200 million the provincial government recently announced it would spend by 2025 on the same issue.

Dunn said he applauds the city for wanting to do more outreach, in part because it shows the municipality recognizes there’s a local homelessness crisis. But the next step, he added, has to be more emphasis on finding places for people in such circumstances to live.

“If you know of a place to stay, my social worker said they’ll pay,” said Abdullah. “It’s hard to find a place, especially if you’re alone.”

Due to the need for overnight supervision, Street Help is only allowing men to spend the night because of a lack of women willing to volunteer to keep an eye on its emergency guests.

dschmidt@postmedia.com

twitter.com/schmidtcity

Ali Abdullah, 26, centre, is thankful Street Help provides a place to go during such cold weather.

Anthony Nelson, a volunteer at the Street Help organization, is shown among the sleeping bags, clothing and other items at the Wyandotte Street East location on Friday, Dec. 29, 2017.

A homeless man sleeps on a bench at Street Help on Friday, Dec. 29, 2017.

The bone-chilling cold is also causing some spine-rattling rides — and considerable damage —  as Windsor roads crack and heave under an oppressive winter blast.

Steve Lutsch said he wasn’t even going that fast when he rolled over a nasty pothole on Wyandotte Street and lost a tire.

“This edge heaving up like that and being concrete, because it tipped a bit, it made a sharp edge,” said Lutsch, who lives in the Riverside area.

“It was just a whack, boom. The bang was so hard that I thought it hit the oil pan underneath the engine. That’s how frigging hard it was.”

Lutsch’s bad luck hit Tuesday afternoon as he was westbound in the right lane of Wyandotte Street, just past the Metro grocery store. He had just pulled away from the stoplight at St. Rose Avenue.

“I got a big truck in front of me, I got traffic beside me,” said Lutsch. “All of a sudden that big truck in front of me did this weird bounce. As soon as he went over it, I saw it.”

Potholes and cracked pavement mar Seminole Street in Windsor, as photographed on April 10, 2017.

There was no time to avoid it.

“I had no recourse,” said Lutsch. “If I were to try to avoid it I would have hit the guy beside it. And boom, it just destroyed my front tire.”

Lutsch said he was luckily only going about 40 or 45km/h because he was behind the truck. If he was going much faster things could have turned out worse.

“It seem like there was an expansion joint that heaved, and it really heaved high,” he said. “About a foot in from that, it cracked and then that piece flipped up even higher. So now you have a sharp edge sticking up.”

Dwayne Dawson, the city’s executive director of operations, said roads do take a beating over the winter. But despite the current deep freeze in the region, he said it’s been a standard winter for road damage.

City of Windsor worker Tim Boughner fills potholes on Askin Boulevard on April 5, 2016.

Windsor spends about $1 million a year fixing potholes. Dawson said that includes thousands of potholes over the winter, but he didn’t have an exact number.

“The frost penetrates into the ground and any moisture in the ground expands as ice,” he said.

“When one part of the road heaves more than the other you get some cracking. The heaved areas can get caught by a snowplough or tires of cars and pop pieces out, creating potholes.”

He said the heaving also happens in spring when the roads thaw out. Dawson said the city learned about Lutsch’s pothole through social media. Crews were sent out Wednesday afternoon to deal with it. He asked that people call 311 to report road damage so the city can keep a record and fix it.

Lutsch said it was after 5 p.m. by the time he put the spare tire on and got home, so 311 was closed. A friend told him to post something on Facebook to warn people. By 6 p.m. Wednesday his post had been shared about 480 times.

A special road levy could be put off for a few years but the city must put more money into roads over the next 20 years, Mayor Drew Dilkens said Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015.

He brought his car to the shop on Wednesday and learned it was probably a good thing word had been spreading about the Wyandotte crater.

“I’m sitting there waiting my turn because everybody’s hitting potholes, and two of the other patrons in there hit the same pothole,” said Lutsch.

He just hopes that was his last visit to a repair shop for a while. Replacing tires is becoming an annual winter tradition.

“Last year my wife whacked one pretty good and it cost us a tire and a rim,” he said. “This time it was just a tire but yah, it did a number on it pretty good.”

twilhelm@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/WinStarWilhelm

Hope you didn’t get used to the mild temperatures Windsor-Essex experienced on Thursday — because we should be freezing again by Friday night, according to Environment Canada.

The city and region enjoyed a high of 11 C on Thursday. That’s 11 degrees Celsius higher than the area’s average high for this time of year, and more than 20 degrees Celsius higher than the temperatures we experienced last week.

But Environment Canada’s meteorologists predict that the mercury will plummet on Friday due to a passing cold front.

Friday’s nighttime temperature in Windsor is expected to fall to -9 C, and thermometer readings should stay down there through the weekend and into next week.

To make matters worse, the drizzling rain that Windsor-Essex experienced Thursday has a good chance of turning into freezing rain early Friday, eventually becoming light snowfall as the air grows colder.

“Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways, and parking lots could become icy and slippery,” Environment Canada advised in a special weather statement as of 4 p.m. Thursday.

“Extra care should be taken when walking or driving in affected areas.”

There’s a 40 per cent chance of flurries late Friday and early Saturday — but Environment Canada said Windsor-Essex shouldn’t receive much more than a couple centimetres.