Rain & strong winds across Toronto & GTA cause power outages, flooded roads

Heavy rain overnight has led to some localized flooding and road closures throughout southern Ontario, with more rain and high winds in the forecast for Monday.

One lane of the southbound Don Valley Parkway was closed north of Dundas Street for about five hours due to flooding. It reopened just before 6 a.m.

And police are advising of ponding on the northbound Highway 400 north of Highway 88 in Bradford.

Some power outages have been reported, but there’s no word if they’re weather-related.

Toronto Hydro said the outages include Highway 27 and Queen’s Plate Drive, Midland Avenue and Kingston Road, and Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue West.

 

Also, Toronto police tweeted that some traffic signals are out in the area bordered by Bathurst Street, Yonge Street, Steeles Avenue West and Finch Avenue West, so treat those intersections accordingly.

 

 

Toronto and the GTA are under a special weather statement from Environment Canada that said about 15 to 30 millimetres of rain are expected in some areas.

The heavy rains, with potential for localized flooding, are forecasted for Toronto and the rest of southern Ontario from late Sunday evening into Monday morning, as a storm crosses the area.

680News meteorologist Jill Taylor is calling for a mild and windy day on Monday, with rain in the morning changing to showers by afternoon.

The forecast high for the day, 14 C, nears the record of 15 C set in 1946. The average high for this time of year is 5 C.

CityNews weather specialist Stella Acquisto said the GTA could see strong winds reaching 90 km/h, especially for areas near Lake Ontario.

Niagara is under a wind warning, with gusts expected to hit between 70 km/h and 100 km/h.

The winds may be strong enough to bring down trees in some areas and could cause power outages.

Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tanya Bruckmueller said their control room is monitoring the weather, but added a big storm doesn’t necessarily mean customers will be in the dark.

“Sometimes we’ve had major wind storms come through and nothing happened,” she explained. “Sometimes they come through, even storms that aren’t even that severe, and we get significant damage. It all depends on how and what direction it hits.”

However, should power lines come down in the storm, Bruckmueller said safety is their top priority.

“When we do get the winds, if there are wires or trees that do come down, stay clear. Call us or call 911,” she said. “It really is key for us is (to) make sure people are safe, particularly in storm situations when wires come down.”

Bruckmueller reminds customers to contact them if the power is out.

The large weather system headed across southern Ontario is a combination of two systems — a southern system coming up from the United States and another coming across from the Prairies, Acquisto explained.

“This is a huge system,” she said. “That’s going to mean that we’re going to see really heavy rainfall amounts and we’re going to see it really early in the morning.”

The agency said the mild temperatures expected on Monday may have some impact on the snow melt for parts of the snow belt regions around Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.

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