Remnants of a hurricane will hit Ontario this week and here's what to expect
Southern Ontario will get a break from scorching temperatures this week, though that relief from the heat will come in the form of what meteorologists describe as “torrential downpours” on the tail end of the destructive Hurricane Beryl.
A large swath of Ontario, including Toronto, has been placed under a special weather statement from Environment And Climate Change Canada (ECCC) as of Monday, coming in addition to the heat warning issued over the weekend.
The latest weather statement warns that the region will potentially be drenched in “heavy rainfall” on Wednesday and Thursday as the remnants of Hurricane Beryl slam into the region.
ECCC advises that the storm could bring the potential for “torrential downpours giving rainfall rates of 20 to 40 mm per hour at times” in Toronto and possible rainfall totals “well in excess of 50 mm.”
⚠️🌀The remnants of Hurricane Beryl are expected to impact Ontario starting Tuesday night to Thursday.⚠️
⛈️Localized rainfall amounts in excess of 50 mm will be possible along with rainfall rates of 20 to 40 mm per hour at times.⛈️#ONwx #ONstorm pic.twitter.com/S5vQo3baMH
— ECCC Weather Ontario (@ECCCWeatherON) July 8, 2024
The system is expected to arrive in Toronto late on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning and is likely to persist into Thursday.
While it’s a pretty menacing forecast for now, ECCC stresses that “confidence in the track of the weather system and associated rainfall amounts is low at this point.”
However, the government weather agency warns that while the likelihood of the system’s track hitting us hard is low as of Monday afternoon, “these types of systems in the past have given very high rainfall rates in torrential downpours.”
Hurricane Beryl — the first of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane season — has caused an estimated US$5 billion in damage in the Caribbean and southern United States. As of July 8, it has weakened to a tropical cyclone after making landfall in Texas and is pushing northeast.