Environment Canada has issued a tornado watch for the Niagara Falls and Welland area for Wednesday afternoon or evening.
“Conditions are favourable for the development of severe thunderstorms which may produce tornadoes,” the watch said, which was issued at 10:45 a.m.
“There is the potential for these thunderstorms to become severe during this time frame, with the risk of a tornado as a primary threat.”
In the event of a tornado, Environment Canada recommends that people go indoors to a room on the lowest floor, away from outside walls and windows.
The tornado watch comes as much of southern Ontario is under a rainfall warning, including Hamilton, Brantford, Burlington and the Niagara Region.
Environment Canada says to expect 40 to 60 mm of “rainfall with embedded torrential downpours” that would continue until Thursday morning. The warning adds that the heaviest rain will occur today and into this evening.
The rain is associated with the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, the weather agency said, which made landfall first in Jamaica, along with Grenada.
The hurricane then went to Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane last week, before weakening as a tropical storm as it moved over to Texas, where it has caused tornadoes and flooding.
The City of Hamilton said its outdoor pool programming, and programs at wading pools, including the free drop-in Supie program, is cancelled Wednesday due to the rain.
Weather watches and warnings mean different things when it comes to stormy weather.