Thunder Bay crews busy as 80 mm of rain falls and floods parts of city

Crews in Thunder Bay, Ont., have remained busy as approximately 80 millimetres of rain fell across the city since Monday morning. More rain is expected Tuesday through Wednesday, and people are being warned that water levels could rise marginally, said city staff.

The amount of rain is record setting,said Geoff Coulson, an Environment Canadawarning preparedness meteorologist.

"Massive amounts of rain at the airport itself between 90 and 100 millimetres [set]a new single day record for the most rain in the month of November," he said, "as well as potentially breaking that record for the most rain in the month of November, ever."

"The previous record was November21stof 1973 when 63 millimetres of rain fell," Coulson said.

And if Thunder Bay residents thought the rain was incessant, they wouldn't be too far off the mark.

"The event started at about five in the morning on Monday. Rain still continues to fall lightly in the area, so we're talking about a 27 to 30 hour rainfall event at this point," Coulson said.

Fort William Road at the Moose Hall would remainclosed until the heavy rainfall warning was lifted, said city staff.

Environment Canada lifted the warning Tuesday morning at about 11:30 a.m.

Other sections of roadways closed due to surface flooding include:

• 15th Side Road between Mountain Road and Thunder Drive
• Mountain Road between Tuxedo Drive and Broad Oaks
• Trendiak Road between Loch Lomond and Little Norway

With another 20 millimetres expected in the next 48 hours, the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority reports that the flood outlook statement for the Lakehead region will continue for areas including:

• City of Thunder Bay,
• Municipalities of Neebing,
• Oliver Paipoonge,
• Shuniah and the Townships of
• O'Connor,
• Conmee,
• Gillies and
• Dorion.