Traquil weather finally

Above: Lightning (bottom right) in Kemptville yesterday afternoon... Below:along with dark skies.

After yesterdays storms it will become very tranquil for the rest of this week. We need it! The storms yesterday were the worst this summer to date in Kemptville. The lightning was intense, winds were strong, hail fell, and over 25mm of rain in less than 90 minutes. Today is cool and dry and it will remain dry right into the weekend with a gradual warming trend.

Tropical Storm Fay has moved into south Florida this morning. I will post more details later.

I apologize for the lack of entries last night, I had intended on posting frequent updates, then lightning struck near my house and destroyed my modem.

Severe Thunderstorms move into region

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning is in effect for all regions of Eastern Ontario with a Watch for Upstate NY. The line of severe weather is now into Ottawa. Heavy rain, hail and wind gusts to 120km/h are occurring. Rainfall of 20-30mm will occur with this front. A second line is moving east into the same above regions. Prepare now for these storms in Leeds Grenville and SD&G. The storms will affect the area till about 7pm. A tornado is not out of the question...be alert, stay safe.

Thunderstorms moving into Ontario

A fast moving line of severe weather is moving south into eastern Ontario this afternoon. Expect severe weather anytime this afternoon as a sharp cold front slides into a very warm and unstable air mass. It is currently 28C here in Kemptville and we are expecting it to go down to 9C tonight. As the cold air invades the area storms are expected to develop. Some of the storms may have hail and strong winds. An isolated tornado cannot be ruled out.

Check here for warnings and watches..
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?on13

Tropical Storm Fay Update

Tropical Storm Fay this morning leaving Cuba.

As expected tropical storm Fay formed over the weekend south of Cuba and is now crossing the island nation. Heavy rains have produced flash floods, killing 5 people. A tropical storm warning is out for the south coast of Florida including Miami and the Florida Keys. A hurricane warning may be needed later today. As the storm moves back over the open waters of the Florida straits, Fay is expected to strengthen and could become a category 1 hurricane later today as she moves along the west coast of the sunshine state. The threat to the northeast coast of the US is gone as Fay has taken a more westerly track. She will however produce flash flooding from western Georgia into the Carolina's by Wednesday.

Isolated Thunderstorms in Ontario

A week upper air disturbance had been the catalyst for some heavy thunderstorms this afternoon along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston to the Quebec border. These storms may slide northward. They are isolated in nature, but producing very heavy rains and small hail. If travelling in the 416/401 area today be ready for changeable weather.

East Coast Hurricane?

Forecasters are growing more concerned that the area of low pressure near the Leeward Islands today could become a big threat to the eastern seaboard next week. Several computer models are suggesting the system, which should become Tropical Storm Fay this weekend, is going to move up towards the Carolina's and grow into a major hurricane. Anybody who is travelling to New England or the Eastern Seaboard next week should monitor the progress of this potential storm this weekend. Use the link on the left for hurricane information (hurricanecity.com) for all the latest updates. I will be following the progress this weekend and providing updates in later posts.

**I usually wait before posting on anything a computer model has to say a week or more out, but with all the travel too and from the east coast beaches at this time of year by residents of Ontario and Quebec, I thought it was important to sound the alarm.

Fun on the Beach

Despite the weather in Nova Scotia, my two fav dogs returned home to their native land to enjoy some sand and sea. Both Rufus (bottom) and Ginger told me that it rained, but they did not care!!!

Thanks Annie for the pictures.

The best forecast in some time

While it is not an ideal forecast for outdoor activities, it is the best we have had in some time. The showers the last couple of days here in eastern Ontario have been hit and miss, and luckily more miss than anything here in Kemptville. It has been dry with some sun. I actually washed my car yesterday. For those who know me I am a neat freak, and I have been unable to wash my car since July 1, yep 6 weeks!

The upper level low has moved southeast off the mid-Atlantic coast, good for us. Some more unsettled weather will slip across our regions late today and again on the weekend, but the trend is for more sun than cloud and only a few scattered thunderstorms. It will be warming up as well, close top 80F (27C) by Monday...yeah!!!

Watching the tropical Atlantic, low pressure north of the Leeward Islands is showing signs of becoming a depression. A NOAA Recon aircraft will fly into the system today to check its intensity. We could be looking at Tropical Storm Fay by the weekend.

Storms miss Kemptville

The amazing photo above is of the upper level low spinning over our area and the Great Lakes. It looks like a Hurricane but thankfully is producing rain and some hail, but not much wind.

So far the news is good for Kemptville today. While we continue to be under the influence of that stubborn upper level low, most of the weather has remained either southeast or northwest of our region. Storms continue to develop and redevelop in the swirl that is this system and spin counterclockwise towards our region. They may occur at any time today and tomorrow. Where they have occurred, the amount of rainfall produced has been amazing. Places around Renfrew and the Ottawa Valley have reported very heavy rain. In upstate New York, parts of Franklin and St. Lawrence Counties have had over 75mm of rain in less than an hour today. Flooding was reported. That area as well as all of Vermont remains under a Flood Watch.

It was likely a similar type storm that produced flooding in Oxford Mills last Thursday night. I was away in Vermont, but one of our writers, Diana Fisher, provided me with the photo you see above. It rained for less than 20 minutes and produced serious flash flooding. I checked area weather stations and only found a few mm had fallen. It was much more over Oxford Mills, but I have no definite amount to report. If anyone out there in Oxford Mills has a rain gauge, give me a call here at The Advance.

Thank You!!! I have surpassed 10,000 hits and I thank you for every one of them.

More Thunderstorms

Heavy thunderstorms begin to develop over Lake Champlain as the Port Kent ferry rolls in.

I just returned home from a short trip to Burlington, Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. The weather was, well, terrible, again. It rained each day, rather heavily with numerous severe thunderstorms. It has been the same old weather pattern for the better part of the last two months, with one upper level low after another spinning its way over the Great Lakes, and across the northeast. The persistent rain has saturated the soils in most of Vermont and northern New York as well as southern Quebec and parts of Ontario. Flooding has been a regular feature in Vermont and Quebec. While we were down in the US, flooding washed out several Vermont highways, damaged homes and cut power. Several counties have been declared federal disaster areas. At this hour we are under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in Ontario while upstate New York and Vermont is under a Flash Flood Watch. Today's storms are expected to linger into Monday before ending late in the day. The potential exists in all regions for another 25-50mm of rain or 1-2 inches. More flooding is possible.

Tropical Storm Edouard along Gulf Coast

The most recent sat photo of Edouard nearing the Texas/Louisiana coast.

I have a few odds and ends to clear up on this Civic Holiday Monday in Ontario. It is a partly sunny and warmer day, but not without scattered showers again. This will be another unsettled week, with showers and thunderstorms each day till Friday at least.

First and the most important is Tropical Storm Edouard. The storm is moving along the Louisiana coast today and is expected to move into extreme southeast Texas on Tuesday. The storm may reach hurricane strength. In any event rough seas, coastal flooding and about 10 inches of rain are forecast for the area. This is the same region that was affected by both Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Showers and thunderstorms continued in rain ravaged Quebec and Ontario today. The rain in Quebec has turned deadly with two fatalities reported from the flash flooding in the eastern part of the province. Roads have been washed away and homes damaged. Flooding in Montreal on Saturday caused millions of dollars in damages. The heavy rain has also produced serious flooding in New Brunswick.

• Below are some photos I took of the historic Nascar race in Montreal this weekend. They show the second place car of Patrick Carpentier and the top photo is of the pace car leading the field past our vantage point in the rain. It was the first time a points paying event was held in the rain for any of the three major divisions of Nascar. Stock cars typically do not like rain!

The rain could hold off no longer! Lightning flashed just prior to the green flag and continued for hours.

Enough Rain Already!

My frustration with the summer of 2008 has reached the end. I just give up. I was so looking forward to the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race in Montreal this weekend and it, like many other things this year, became the victim of rain. Not only did it rain, but it was a bloody monsoon. The rain began just shortly after the green flag waved at around 3:45pm yesterday. For the first time in NASCAR history they switched to rain tires for a point paying event. They continued in the rain till it became an epic downpour and the race was called at lap 48 with Ron Fellows from Toronto winning. Quebec native Patrick Carpentier placed 2nd and Marcos Ambrose 3rd.

I sat in the pouring rain, wrapped in a green garbage bag, trying to keep the scanner and camera dry. While we were troopers, PJ and me, as were the drivers, crews and ESPN, we just had to give up when the shower turned to an Ark-like downpour. While Dorval measured 4.8mm of rain, radar estimates put the east end thunderstorm amounts from the race track north in the 30-50mm range. The rain caused flooding in the Anjou/St. Leonard area of Montreal with many homes flooded and both Highways 25 & 40 closed.

Flooding was also reported in the eastern Townships of Quebec, eastern Quebec around the Charlevoix region, and Vermont. The forecast today...rain. Unreal! Enough already.

Off to the Races

Action from last years race in Montreal. I am pulling for Quebec native and fan favorite Patrick Carpentier. There will be three Canadian drivers in the field, Carpentier, Ron Fellows and Jacques Villeneuve.

It was has become a drone of disappointment we are staring down another long weekend with a not so good forecast. I am running out of words to describe rain. To make matters worse I am attending the NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Montreal at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this weekend. It is my big racing event of the year, and if I can't deliver dry weather I will hear it from my buddies. Sadly we have an upper level low spinning in central Ontario, as it has been doing for the last 2 weeks. The air mass remains moist and very unstable. With that the risk of showers and thunderstorms will be very real right through Sunday. There will be a 50% chance of precipitation at any point this weekend, and higher during the late afternoons. Monday looks, at this point, to be sunny and dry with a high of 26C. While the weekend will not be a washout anywhere in our regions, the threat of getting wet is there each day.

Have fun, be safe, drive slow and please be good to each other....I am off to the races!!!

Severe Thunderstorms on the way

Heavy thunderstorms are moving into the southwest corner of the province at this hour and will spread north and east as the day moves along. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is already in effect for those regions. We can expect these storms to reach us here in Kemptville late this afternoon and continue into the evening. This will only add to our already impressive rain totals for the year thus far. Toronto will surpass its all time rain record today when it moves over 600mm for the year. This amount is double what fell all of last year. The extended forecast looks like more showers for the holiday weekend, but it should clear up and turn quite warm for Civic Monday.

Kemptville Accident

The scene of a serious accident in Kemptville today between the truck on the left and an OPP Motorcycle.

I am just back from a serious accident on Prescott Street in Kemptville. The crash occurred at 4:30 this afternoon between an OPP Motorcycle and a small Chevy pick up. Out of respect for the officer I only collected some shots of the scene. The Kemptville Weekender will have some closer shots taken by one of our reporters along with further details. At this time the officer was transported to KDH with undisclosed injuries by Leeds & Grenville EMS. KFD and several OPP Cruisers are still on scene and Prescott remains closed indefinitely north of Van Buren Street to Elizabeth Street.

Odds & Ends - Weekend Forecast

Above: Some Damage photos from Brownsville (above) and Padre Island (below), in Texas caused by Hurricane Dolly.

Weekend forecast follows below. Just some pics I wanted to share....

Severe thunderstorms on Highway 4 in New Hampshire.....followed by a gorgeous sunset on Chesapeake Bay with the Bay Bridge in the foreground, and believe it or not the bottom photo is of the snow dump at Turcotte Yards in Montreal. The black stuff is snow, of which 15% of the tons of snow dumped over the winter remains with piles of garbage in it. Yuck!

OK Weather Weekend

OK is the meteorological term when it has rained over 75mm in one week and on 8 out of the 9 summer weekends to date so far here in Ontario and most of Quebec. It will be just that, OK. The stubborn low pressure area that has dogged us all week has now moved east of the region. Today will be very muggy with a high of 26C. There is just an outside chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm. Tomorrow however we are back to rain and thunderstorms along a cold front, before it clears out again for Sunday. It will be 25-27C on both days, so all in all OK!

Severe Thunderstorm Warning

Environment Canada has upgraded the thunderstorm watch to a warning for Leeds & Grenville Counties. Clusters of heavy thunderstorms are developing along Highway 29 from Smiths Falls to Brockville and moving northeast. They will affect Merrickville, and Kemptville in the next couple of hours with torrential rain. More storms are developing with heavy rain over St. Lawrence County, New York. They will begin to affect the Eastern Ontario region around the 416 shortly including Prescott and Spencerville.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch

From Environment Canada at 9:45am...


SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH ISSUED For Kemptville BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA BULLETIN ISSUED AT: 9:46 AM EDT THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008
LOCAL SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE WITH TORRENTIAL RAINFALL THE MAIN CONCERN. LARGE HAIL AND STRONG WINDS POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AS WELL. THIS IS AN ALERT TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY RAIN LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS. IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES TAKE IMMEDIATE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS. AT 9:10 AM WEATHER RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF HEAVY THUNDERSTORMS EXTENDING FROM ABOUT 25 KM WEST OF THE COMMUNITY OF RENFREW TO THE SOUTHWEST OF SHARBOT LAKE. MOTION IS AROUND 30 KM/H TO THE NORTHEAST AND SHOULD LIE FROM NEAR RENFREW TO SHARBOT LAKE BY 10 AM. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 50 TO 75 MM WITHIN A 3 HOUR PERIOD ARE QUITE LIKELY IN THIS LINE DUE TO ITS SLOW-MOVING NATURE.

More rain for Kemptville

The upper level low that has been spinning over eastern Ontario and the Great Lakes will continue for at least one more day. Very heavy rain will once again develop in the tropical air mass from south to north, and produce torrential downpours. Last night more than 40mm fell in many region in a very short period of time, filling drainage ditches, allowing creeks to rise, and flooding some roads. 38.3mm was the official in Kemptville, I had slightly less at 33mm. Whatever the amount, it is falling on already saturated soil as the very wet summer moves along. Any more rain today will only add to the flood potential. Any flooding will be minor in nature, but the risk is present.

A Flood Watch remains posted for northern New York and Vermont. Heavy Rain Warnings are in effect in southern Quebec, excluding Montreal, for 50-70mm addtional rainfall today. That could push this weeks totals to well over 100mm.