Rainfall warning issued as remnants of Hurricane Beryl hit

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Southwestern Ontario is in for a soaking from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl.

Environment Canada issued rainfall warnings for Southwestern Ontario, including London and Middlesex County, on Tuesday afternoon.

Rain is expected to begin overnight or Wednesday morning, the agency said, and end Thursday.

“Rainfall amounts will likely be highly variable across the region, and some areas may receive in excess of 80 millimetres,” the agency said.

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London is expected to receive between 40 and 80 millimetres, with higher amounts possible in some locations. Enivironment Canada is warning of “torrential downpours” of 20 to 40 millimetres of rain an hour at times.

“Although confidence in the exact track of the weather system remains somewhat uncertain, these type of systems in the past have given very high rainfall rates in torrential downpours,” the agency said.

Several conservation authorities in the London region issued statements Tuesday afternoon warning of the potential rainfall.

The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority said it doesn’t anticipate significant flooding, but water levels in streams and rivers are expected to rise and remain elevated for a few days. There is the potential for flooding in low-lying areas, the authority said.

Parents are advised to keep children and pets away from rivers and streams.

Hurricane Beryl crashed Texas on Monday after passing through the Caribbean, killing several people, unleashing flooding and leaving millions without power just as a brutal heat wave was arriving in its aftermath.

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Beryl was blamed for killing several people in Texas and at least one in Louisiana, officials said. 

The storm weakened into a tropical depression after making landfall, and by Tuesday morning its centre was over southwestern Arkansas, moving northeast with maximum sustained wind speeds near 30 miles per hour (48 kilometres per hour), U.S. officials said. Its strength wasn’t expected to change much in the next day or two.

Beryl still threatened to unleash more harsh weather over several other states in coming days. It was expected to bring heavy rainfall and possible flash flooding from the lower and mid-Mississippi Valley to the Great Lakes on Tuesday into Wednesday.

Beryl on Tuesday was far less powerful than the Category 5 behemoth that earlier tore a deadly path of destruction through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean. But its winds and rains still knocked down hundreds of trees that had already been teetering in water-saturated earth, and strand dozens of cars on flooded roads.

-With files from Associated Press

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