Some areas along the shores of Lake Huron from Goderich and north to the Gray Bruce Peninsula reported being hit by strong winds and rain. In other areas the storms passed quickly with only a few showers. As of 6 p.m., tornado watches were in effect for:
London-Middlesex. Grey-Bruce. Huron-Perth Sarnia-Lambton. Waterloo-Wellington Windsor-Essex-Chatham Kent.
Many of the same areas were also under severe thunderstorm warnings.
Early this afternoon, Bluewater Power reported a weather outage in Sarnia that affected about 3,200 customers, but has since restored power to the affected area.
As of 6 p.m., some storm cells with the potential to bring strong winds and rain formed west of Lake Huron in Michigan and were heading toward the shores of Canada’s Lake Huron.
Tornado watch statements issued earlier Wednesday said the storms could pack damaging wind gusts between 90 and 110 kilometers per hour. Hail the size of a nickel, and up to the size of a toonie, is also possible.
Geoff Coulson is a metrologist at Environment Canada. He said weather modeling shows storms likely to affect a wide swath of southwestern Ontario.
“The area of greatest concern at this point is from the Windsor area through London and also includes the shores of Lake Huron and up to the Bruce Peninsula and parts of Jerozian Bay,” he said. “The real concern right now is the southwest.”
Couslon advises anyone planning outdoor activities Wednesday and evening to pay attention to weather statements and warnings.
East of Exeter 5:38 p.m. pic.twitter.com/7TL328CdAX
—@alyshamill
“Watching the sky and weather statements will be very important in what could be a rapidly evolving situation this afternoon and into this evening,” he said.
Storms are expected to develop over eastern Michigan or Lake Hurro this afternoon and then continue eastward into the evening.
The statement says the threat of severe weather will diminish as the storms move east this afternoon.
The special weather statement comes as all of southern Ontario is already on a heat alert. The forecast calls for daytime highs in London to reach 31 degrees Celsius. Considering the humidity, temperatures in some parts of southwestern Ontario could reach 40 degrees Celsius.
