Brace yourself. The red patches on the weather radar aren’t going away yet.
As Leamington residents were mopping up from flooding Friday, meteorologists were warning more downpours are on the way this weekend.
Environment Canada meteorologist Mark Schuster said thunderstorms could potentially roll through the region for the next couple days.
“Currently over south-eastern Michigan there are quite a few thunderstorms ongoing, so this could be affecting the area,” he said.
Friday’s sudden storm dumped five to 10 millimetres of rain on Windsor, and Leamington was hit with anywhere from 50 to 75 millimetres, Schuster said.mark schuster
It’s been a soggy June for the region. Schuster said that as of Friday afternoon, Windsor airport had reported 149 millimetres of rain this month. The airport only reported 42 millimetres of rain for the same time last year. A typical June usually brings about 89 millimetres of rain, Schuster said.
Leamington Mayor John Paterson said he’s worried about the weekend forecast. “If it comes in a deluge like it did today, we’re going to have more flooding,” he said.
Paterson said the town received about 40 calls about flooding on roads and in basements.
Tim Byrne, head of the Essex Region Conservation Authority’s water management branch, said he saw firsthand how hard the town was hit by the downpour.
He said motorists were pulling off the road because their windshield wipers couldn’t keep up with the rain. “You were almost in the equivalent to a blizzard in the wintertime – it was a whiteout, but it was rainfall,” he said.
Meanwhile, according Dr. Allen Heimann of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, recent stormy weather has caused a record number of beach closures for the region.
Many beaches are closed this week after the health unit detected high levels of E. coli in the water.
Heavy rains cause sewer overflows into Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River and Lake Erie, he said. As well, the offshore winds stir up the sediment in the water, which causes bacteria levels to rise.
Five beaches in the region all clocked in at more than 1,000 E. coli bacteria per 100 mL of sample water: Cedar Beach and Lakeside Beach in Kingsville, Colchester Beach in Essex, Holiday Beach in Amherstburg, and Seacliff Beach in Leamington.
“It is the highest that I can remember,” said Heimann. Last year, only one beach was closed at any given time, he added.
In addition to the five closed beaches, the health unit does not recommend swimming at Windsor’s Sand Point Beach, West Belle River Beach in Lakeshore, Cedar Island Beach in Kingsville and Northwest Beach in Point Pelee because of higher-than-normal bacteria levels.
But just in case you were wondering any poor weather coming our way won’t shut down the Canada Day parade. Organizer David Grimaldi said no amount of rain could halt the yearly procession through Windsor’s downtown arteries.
“We never call off the Canada Day parade,” he said.
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