Rain turns to snow tonight with squalls developing, widespread weather alerts in effect

Rain turns to snow tonight

Snow squalls are expected to develop heading into the evening with widespread watches in effect.

The areas under a snow squall watch in southern Ontario include Huron, Perth, Grey and Bruce counties. The watch also stretches into Kitchener, Waterloo, Wellington, as well as Dufferin County.

“Now the entire region is under a special weather statement, warning of strong gusty winds out of the south,” said CTV News London meteorologist Julie Atchison.

“The winds have already picked up and are gusting close to 60 kilometers per hour at the London airport. We have a wind warning in through Haldimand, Norfolk and Southern Niagara, where winds could gust to 90 kilometers per hour,” she said.

Eventually the winds will come around to the west, and Atchison said that will activate lake effect snow across southern Ontario.

“So the front is now moving off to the east... and then colder air starting to wrap back into this system, so, we’ve reached our high for the day already and temperatures will continue to tumble this evening.” she said.

As the temperatures drop, watch for the transition from rain to snowfall this evening, especially through Huron and Perth counties.

“There is the potential for about five to 10 centimeters of snowfall. If we see a snow squall set up, which we are expecting to happen as we head into your Thursday, we will see those numbers continue to jump. So an additional 10 to 20 centimeters of snow,” said Atchison.

There is still the chance for flurries on Friday, winds will be winding down Friday afternoon, moving into mainly cloudy periods on Saturday and the potential for a rain snow mix on Sunday.

Here’s your London area forecast

Wednesday: Mainly cloudy. Wind southwest 40 km/h gusting to 60. Temperature falling to plus 2 this afternoon.

Wednesday night: Cloudy. 40 per cent chance of flurries this evening. A few flurries beginning near midnight. Local amount 2 cm. Wind southwest 40 km/h gusting to 70. Low minus 1. Wind chill minus 9 overnight.

Thursday: Flurries. Wind west 40 km/h gusting to 70. High plus 1. Wind chill minus 9 in the morning.

Friday: Cloudy with 40 per cent chance of flurries. Windy. High minus 1.

Saturday: Cloudy with 30 per cent chance of flurries. High minus 3.

Sunday: Flurries or rain showers. High plus 1.