The remnants of a hurricane are going to make for some wet weather in the London area.
Environment Canada has issued a rainfall warning saying parts of the region could see 45-55mm of rain from a fall storm that is the result of moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Patricia.
The weather agency says the heaviest rain will come on Wednesday.
Forecasters say the storm will also pack strong winds with gusts of up to 70km/h expected and have issued a wind warning for St. Thomas, Aylmer and Eastern Elgin County, warning of possible damage and power outages.
The rainfall amounts will be welcome news to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. It says water levels in the area are low despite the rain that fell on the weekend.
It says, despite the rain we saw on the weekend, the local watershed is experiencing low level conditions.
"We evaluate low water conditions by looking at several indicators, including precipitation over the past three months and stream flows over the past month," says Mark Shifflett, Senior Water Resources Engineer with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority.
UTRCA says rainfall totals from July to September were only half of what is normally seen during those months. Because of that, water levels in streams and rivers in the area have been dropping steadily.
"The trend has continued in October as we’ve had only half the normal amount of precipitation across much of the watershed, and stream flows have remained low," says Shifflett. "We need more rain to replenish the deficit that we’ve been experiencing. Stream flows usually recover in the early fall after summer lows, but this hasn’t happened yet."
