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April snow, showers raise risk of flooding in southern Ontario

There's a touch of winter back in southern Ontario today, and although that's brought along the headaches, hassles and hazards of the snow and ice, it's done nothing to abate the rising waters in some of the province's rivers.

After the nearly summer-like warmth that southern Ontario was enjoying over the past week, and the relief from the chills of winter that came with it, the view outside today came as a very unwelcome sight. Several centimetres of snow fell early this morning, mixed with some freezing rain and ice pellets for good measure, just in time to create hassles and delays for the morning commute.

The heaviest amounts tracked out of southwestern and central Ontario by midday, headed into eastern Ontario and Quebec. However, chill, gusty winds have been blowing streamers of snow off of Lake Huron for much of the afternoon, giving evening commuters the same hassles and hazards as this morning.

Despite this cold snap, the provinces rivers are running high due to last week's melt and the added rain that preceded today's chills. A provincial flood watch is in effect today for southern and northeastern Ontario, along with local flood watches and warnings in regions from the shores of Lake Huron all the way to eastern Ontario. Messages from the affected conservation authorities are providing ample warning to residents, but it's the messages from these local residents themselves that give the best indication of exactly what's going on:

Dave Patrick, from OntarioWeather.com, recorded this video near Fergus on Tuesday, as raging waters of the Grand River approached the Shand Dam:

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Fortunately, the cold snap isn't expected to last much longer, as warmer, spring weather is moving in again for the rest of the week. As for the risk of flooding, there's still plenty of snow on the ground from winter in many regions, and this latest snowfall added several centimetres to that, so continued melting will feed that meltwater into the river systems. More stretches of summer-like weather like last week could put this process into overdrive, but hopefully we can look forward to a bit slower a climb towards the warmer weather, to give all that flow time to wend its way through the waterways safely.

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