Environment Canada has issued a Special Weather Statement for the Chatham-Kent and Essex County regions due to significant amounts of additional rainfall in the forecast.  From last Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, the western portion of the Lower Thames watershed experienced heavy rain and storms which dropped between 50 and 100 mm of rainfall.  A series of showers and thunderstorms are passing through the region late this morning and this afternoon that could drop an additional 25 mm of rain.  Starting late this evening another round of showers and thunderstorms is expected that could drop an additional 25-35 mm through tomorrow afternoon.

In the west of the watershed, the ground is still quite saturated due to the heavy rain over the weekend any can’t take much additional rainfall.  Should the forecasted rainfall amounts appear, there will likely to be issues of localized flooding just due to the amount of rainfall.

Water levels on the region’s smaller local watercourses are now dropping from the weekend’s rain but this additional forecasted rainfall would cause them to rise up again.  Those areas that saw high water levels or overbank flooding over the weekend could see that occur again.  In Chatham-Kent, the LTVCA expects the McGregor Creek Diversion Channel to be operating for another few days because of the rainfall.

Water levels on the Thames River are not expected to come up much due to the forecasted rains.  The Upper watershed received only a small amount of rain over the weekend and isn’t contributing significant flows to the river.

People should take extra caution and avoid the river, ditches, and streams.  The combination of slippery banks and fast moving water can be dangerous.  Standing water can also present its own unseen hazards.  Children and pets should be kept away from the water.

Officials will continue to monitor the situation and update this advisory if necessary.

This message will be in effect until May 16th, 2018.

Contact:  Jason Wintermute (jason.wintermute@ltvca.ca,), 519-354-7310 x227) regarding this message.