Cold front to bring severe thunderstorms to parts of Ontario

Severe thunderstorms are expected across parts of Ontario Saturday afternoon and evening, with the potential for damaging winds, large hail and heavy rainfall.

Scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop ahead of and along a cold front across most of southern Ontario and parts of northeastern Ontario.

The strongest storms can produce wind gusts of up to 90 km/h and hail up to the size of a toonie.

Rainfall amounts of up to 40 millimetres are possible, with local hourly rainfall rates of 20 to 30 millimetres.

The storms could result in broken or downed trees, localized power outages and damage to plants and crops.

Thunderstorms are also expected to move eastward into parts of eastern Ontario and the Windsor-Chatham area during the afternoon or evening.

Storms that developed during the afternoon could become severe.

Loose objects could be tossed by strong winds, and power outages were possible.

Rainfall amounts of up to 30 millimetres were forecast for those areas, with local hourly totals of up to 20 millimetres.