Active Weather
The active weather in this province is confined to the northwest, and southern Ontario is clear.
The Environment and Climate Change Canada alert feed, read at 5:00 this morning Universal time, carries 283 active alerts nationally. Ten of them are in Ontario, all special weather statements, and all in the northwest.
The statement, issued at 10:06 last evening Eastern time, covers Dryden and Vermilion Bay, Ear Falls and Perrault Falls, Fort Frances and Emo and Rainy River, Ignace and English River, Kenora and Grassy Narrows and Whitedog, Red Lake and Woodland Caribou Park, Savant Lake and Sturgeon Lake, Seine River Village and Mine Centre, Sioux Lookout and eastern Lac Seul, and Sioux Narrows and Nestor Falls and Morson.
It calls for 20 to 40 millimetres of rain overnight into this morning from heavy showers and thunderstorms that arrived from Manitoba over the Lake of the Woods area and are moving northeast. Rain may be locally heavy at times with reduced visibility.
A special weather statement is the lowest tier Environment Canada issues. It means conditions worth knowing about that have not reached warning criteria. The statement itself notes that rainfall warnings may be required, which is the honest way of saying the situation could step up and has not yet.
The stated hazards are water pooling on roads and in low lying areas. Twenty to forty millimetres is roughly one to one and a half inches, which on the ordinary road is a nuisance and at a culvert crossing is worth a second look.
Nothing is active in southern, eastern, or central Ontario. Toronto, Ottawa, and the southwestern peninsula have no alerts this morning.
Infrastructure
Ontario carries the highest agency fire preparedness level in Canada today, and it is worth putting in proportion.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre's national situation report for September 7 gives Ontario an agency preparedness level of 2 on a five step scale. Every other reporting agency in the country is at 1. Level 2 corresponds to moderate fire danger and a moderate current fire load, with agency resources still adequate.
Ontario has 22 fires under full response covering 508,057 hectares, of which one is out of control, five are being held, and 16 are under control. A further four are under modified response and 39 under monitored response. No new fires started in the province yesterday. The season total stands at 780 fires and 744,175 hectares.
The rain moving through the northwest works in favour of that picture.
Ontario is not receiving or sending resources through the national mobilization system today. The country's entire mobilization is going to British Columbia.
For local infrastructure, heavy showers with thunderstorms in the northwest mean the ordinary summer risks: brief power interruptions from lightning, and gravel road and culvert issues where the rain concentrates. Provincial guidance directs flooding questions to the local Conservation Authority or the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Public Health
No air quality alerts are active in Ontario.
No boil water advisories were identified in the province. Ontario households on private wells have a seasonal item worth remembering after any heavy rain: surface water can reach a shallow or poorly sealed well, and the only way to know is to test. Testing is free through the public health unit.
That is the useful action for anyone in the warned area with a dug well or a well head sitting low in the yard. Not an emergency, just the reason a September test is worth doing after a wet stretch.
Watch Item
Two items, one for this week and one for the season.
For this week, the Weather Prediction Center's extended discussion, issued at 1:41 yesterday afternoon Eastern time, has a low pressure system moving through eastern Canada and lifting northeastward into Ontario by early tomorrow, dragging a cold front behind it. That is the system that produced tonight's showers in the northwest, and it will continue east across the province.
For the season, early September in Ontario is the quiet stretch between the summer thunderstorm pattern and the autumn one. It does not last. Ontario's most disruptive hazard is ice, and ice storms here have taken power out across large areas for days at a time. The preparation for that is done in September and October, not in December.
The item that does the most is heat that does not depend on the grid, and the item that goes with it is the alarm that makes that heat safe. A carbon monoxide alarm belongs on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas, and it should be tested monthly. If yours is more than ten years old the sensor is past its rated life and the unit needs replacing rather than a new battery.
The second item is water. A three day supply at four litres per person per day is the standard Canadian recommendation, and it is the thing most households mean to sort out and do not.
The third is a way to receive official information that does not depend on a phone with a dead battery. A battery or hand crank radio costs little and works when nothing else does.
None of that needs doing today. All of it is easier in September than in January, which is the whole reason to mention it now.
Explore Today
Ontario's most disruptive hazard, and the preparation that has to happen before the season.
Heat, light, and food safety when the grid is down for more than a day.
Water pooling, culvert crossings, and what to do about a well after heavy rain.