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Rainfall for Kenora in September higher than usual

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It was a wet, cold September for the Kenora region.

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Kenora received 181.6 millimetres of precipitation in the month of September, which is the most since 2003.

“It’s just been quite wet and it’s not just this year, even past years,” said Gerald Cheng, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

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The normal amount of rainfall for September should be around 85mm, but there hasn’t been a year below 100mm of rain since 2014. The rain might subside for a while, but there’s snow potentially headed to Northwestern Ontario this week.

“It could skirt by on Thursday, something to watch if people are driving the Highway 17,” Cheng said.

Snow has hit western Canada hard, with Calgary receiving 30 centimetres of snow, and Cheng said it won’t get that bad in the northwest but it’s “something to watch for.”

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The heavy rainfall has put a stress on the water stations in Kenora, manager of operations and infrastructure with they city Jeff Hawley said 20 stations had high-level alarms over the weekend. These alarms mean the water is above the normal operating level and doesn’t mean there’s any flooding.

“This has been a particularly wet fall, no doubt about it,” Hawley said.

Hawley said there has been some erosion occurring on some roads but “no actual road washouts.” He said crews are currently working on those roads with erosion.

“Any time the ground gets really saturated it’s always challenging for us,” he said. “Just in the sense that when we get additional rainfall there’s nowhere for that to absorb into so now, you’re getting fast run off into the system.

“So far, we’re staying on top of it and that is very much due to the dedicated crews working out in the field.”

rstelter@postmedia.com

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