The clearing skies this afternoon is just a temporary lull in the torrential rainfall that has already pummelled Windsor and Essex County Thursday, forcing some motorists to abandon their vehicles on flooded roadways.
“We may get some breaks here and there, but unfortunately with this low-pressure system parking itself in southern Indiana it’s going to keep sending these streams of moisture northward over the next couple of days,” Environment Canada spokesman Geoff Coulson said this afternoon, forecasting that the next big rain is coming across Lake Erie and should arrive in Windsor-Essex by about 4:30 p.m.
How much rain will fall will be “highly variable,” according to Environment Canada’s alert for Windsor and Essex County, but it should range between 40 and 70 mm over the rest of today and Friday. The latest rain measurements taken at 2 p.m. show that 78 mm has fallen at Windsor Airport in the last 24 hours. But volunteers living near Lake St. Clair are reporting much more significant rainfall — 115 mm in Belle River and 120 to 160 mm in Tecumseh. Meanwhile, volunteers in Leamington report 50 mm of rain.
The average rainfall in Windsor is 94 mm for the entire month of September.
The rain is being produced by a slow moving low pressure system over the Ohio Valley.
Thursday morning, deserted vehicles scattered the intersection of Tecumseh Road East at Lesperance Road as the storm water rose across the county.
Windsor police reported a sinkhole on Lilac Lane between Lauzon Road and Esplanade Drive.
Tecumseh fire said Tecumseh Road East between Lesperance and Southfield Drive is flooded.
Riverside Drive East between Pillette and Lauzon roads is closed because of flooding.
Heavy rains have flooded many roads in Windsor and Essex County. Motorists make their way along Jefferson Avenue on Sept. 29, 2016.
Flooding is reported in the area of McHugh Street and Darfield Road.
Hydro One said more nearly 2,000 customers in Leamington and Wheatley are without power.
Ontario Provincial Police are advising motorists to stay off roads with standing water.
Const. Jim Root said they have received numerous calls about minor collisions and flooded roadways and are “telling people to avoid certain areas where there’s heavy water laying on the roadways.”
Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for the region Wednesday evening and upgraded it later to a rainfall alert.
Coulson said authorities who deal with flooding in Windsor-Essex “are going to have to contend with the fact that more in the way of rain is expected through Friday and into the day on Saturday before things do start to lessen off.”
This deluge “is totally confined to you guys,” Environment Canada’s Dave Phillips said Thursday morning from Toronto.
“When these weather systems move very slowly they have a lot more time to spread their misery,” said Phillips.
“It is almost pirouetting around in Essex County and drenching you guys and not moving anywhere,” much like an unwanted houseguest who just won’t leave.
