Water levels ease on Ottawa River rise on Saint Lawrence

Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River are expected to crest over the next few weeks above the record flood of 2017. The image above is from the Thousand Islands near Gananoque, Ontario in 2017. (CBC)

Tuesday was the 16th consecutive day with some form of precipitation in Montreal, a new record for the month of May, dating back to the late 1800s. It has rained at Trudeau Airport in Montreal on 24 of 29 days so far in May, totalling 95mm. The normal is 81.2mm for the month. Wet and cool weather is forecast to persist into early June as we remain trapped in this annoying cycle.

Cool moist air is dominating Ontario and Quebec, while very warm air remains trapped across the southeastern US. The battleground in between has featured several weeks of strong thunderstorms, devastating tornadoes and record flooding from the southern plains into the Ohio Valley.

In Montreal, the flood warning has been lifted and the long clean-up is underway. Hundreds of volunteers spent last weekend removing sandbags for homes in Pierrefonds and Vaudreuil-Dorion. Just this week, the barriers were removed that had been in place along Saint-Charles Avenue in Vaudreuil-Dorion for the last six weeks. They worked, the municipality managed to save the road as well as homes and businesses along it. The threat appears to have passed as water levels continue to lower. The level of Lake of Two Mountains at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue was 23.89 metres on Tuesday, finally dropping below the major flood stage of 23.90 metres.

Concern is now shifting to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River which continues to rise to record levels. Flooding is occurring along both the Canadian and American shorelines. Lake Ontario is at 75.87 metres, a notch below the record set in 2017 of 75.88 metres. Water levels remain high in all of the Great Lakes. The International Lake Ontario-Saint Lawrence River Board is monitoring the levels and adjusting the outflow of the Moses-Saunders Dam near Massena, New York. This is in an attempt to balance the flooding on both sides of the dam, including here in the Montreal region. However for shoreline residents experiencing flooding for the second time in two years, it seems like little is being done. The lake is expected to crest over the next two weeks, but water levels are forecast to remain high well into the summer.