Active Weather
A quiet morning across the province. Environment and Climate Change Canada's national alert map, last updated 1:07 AM Eastern on Sunday September 6, shows 13 alerts active across the country, none in Ontario. Quebec and the Atlantic provinces carry this morning's alerts.
Nothing is active from Windsor to Thunder Bay. That is the normal state of things and a good day to treat as one.
Infrastructure
No grid emergencies, water system disruptions, or provincial emergency declarations are reported in Ontario this morning.
The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System's summary page could not be read this run, so this brief does not state a current provincial fire count. The national season summary current as of mid-August places Ontario among the most heavily affected provinces at roughly 732,000 hectares across 716 fires, with the largest single fire of the season in the northwest of the province. Those are August figures rather than a statement about conditions today, and northwestern Ontario is a long way from most of the province's population.
Public Health
No air quality alerts are listed for Ontario this morning. The Air Quality Health Index at weather.gc.ca gives a current reading and forecast by community, which is the right level for a question that changes with wind direction.
Watch Item
Ontario's hazard calendar turns in October and November, and the two events that define it here are ice storms and the wind and rain systems that follow the Great Lakes. Neither is a September problem, which is exactly why September is when the work gets done.
The item worth naming is trees. Ice storm damage in this province is overwhelmingly a tree problem before it is a power problem: limbs load with ice, come down on lines, and take the neighbourhood's power with them. A branch overhanging a roof or a service line is far easier to deal with in September than in January, and it is the single highest-value hour of outdoor work available to an Ontario household this month.
The second item is heat, in reverse. If you heat with a furnace, a wood stove, or a fireplace, this is the month to have it serviced and to test the carbon monoxide alarms on every level of the home. Carbon monoxide has no colour and no smell. An alarm is the only thing that detects it, and testing takes a minute.
The third is the one that costs nothing. Find the flashlights, check that they work, and put one where each person sleeps rather than one in a drawer in the kitchen.
Explore Today
Written for the season that opens in a few weeks, and for the tree work that has to happen before it.
Heating safely, carbon monoxide alarms, and what a household covers on its own while crews work.
A quiet day is the right day to run through this and find the gaps.