High winds, heavy rains hit Ontario
A fast-moving storm brought heavy rain and high winds to parts of southern Ontario on Tuesday.
Environment Canada has ended a tornado and severe thunderstorm watch that was posted for Windsor, Essex County and Chatham-Kent in southwestern Ontario. No funnel clouds were reported.
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The winds in the area were strong enough to knock down some power lines and flip a transport truck on its side on a Highway 401 ramp in the Chatham area.
In the Greater Toronto Area, heavy rain produced reduced visibility and slow evening commutes.
For northwestern Ontario, Environment Canada said "an unseasonably intense storm" over northern Minnesota would move into the area Monday night.
Environment Canada said widespread rainfall amounts of 20 to 40 millimetres were anticipated over the next 36 hours with the majority of the precipitation falling Tuesday night into Wednesday. Strong easterly winds of 40 kilometres per hour, gusting to 70 to 80 km/h, were also forecast to affect much of the area.
Forecasters said colder air blasts in areas of Ontario closer to the Manitoba border could mean the rain will change over to wet snow on Wednesday night, producing a few centimetres of accumulation.
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The storm hammered large swaths of the U.S. Midwest on Tuesday afternoon, including an area that stretched from the Dakotas to the eastern Great Lakes. Severe thunderstorm warnings blanketed much of the area and tornado watches were issued from Arkansas to Ohio.
Numerous flights out of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport were delayed or cancelled in the afternoon. Between 2 and 3 p.m. CT alone, 57 flights were cancelled, including a 2:05 p.m. CT United Airlines flight to Toronto.
The backside of the storm already brought two to 12 centimetres of light snow to Alberta and northern Saskatchewan. The rain/snow line is expected to linger near the Saskatchewan and Manitoba border, with mainly snow, strong winds and cold temperatures west of the line, including in Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton.