Fog on the 416 slowed travel...Photo: C. Hofley

What a day...and night!

It is 11C in Kemptville, 13C in Cornwall and 18C in Watertown at 1pm. Feels like mid-April when the sun comes out. It won't last, radar is showing heavy returns across central Ontario, and that thunderstorm and shower activity is moving east. So much snow has melted in the last 24 hours, it is amazing...I believe the National Weather Service office in Watertown used the words "obscene warmth."

I spent most of the overnight unable to sleep and listening to my police scanner following the Kemptville Fire Department as they raced water back and forth to a huge barn fire on South River Road just off Actons Corners Road. What a job they did shuttling water back and forth from Kemptville to the fire scene with the help of the Merrickville FD, Edwardsburg/Cardinal FD and Ottawa FD. The good news was the weather was tame by any standard let alone January. We had some thunderstorm activity earlier in the overnight. Then through the bulk of the fire episode, the fog lifted, the rain stopped and it was almost 10C. The fog and rain moved back in by daybreak.

The Fire Department in town are volunteers who give so much of there energy and time...kudos to you all. We are lucky to have you.