Be prepared in the next few days. That’s the cautionary flag being waved by Renfrew development and works director Mike Asselin.
After hearing warm-weather and rain projections for Friday and Saturday, Asselin suggests Renfrew-area home owners may need to take quick action on home turf.
More snow isn’t in the short-term forecast, but Asselin says homeowners should take steps to avoid snow-related problems. Current snow accumulations will become wetter and could result in poor drainage or undue pressure on buildings big or small.
Time permitting, residents should remove excess snow from the roofs of structures and from areas on the ground where poor drainage could result in flooding.
Be prepared, says Asselin.
Get shovels and snowplows working, where needed, is the suggestion.
In some parts of Ontario, 25 millimetres of rain could fall over a 24-hour period.
This winter season has already been tremendously busy for local residents and town staff, after receiving an estimated 100 centimetres of snow before the first week of January was over.
“There has been so much snow in a short period of time, we’ve exhausted our storage sites,” said Asselin this afternoon.
“We’re still trying to dig out from the last snowfalls. In only half the town have we removed the snow from the sides of the roads.”
And conditions could get a lot messier, if extremely warm weather is followed by a cycle of freezing temperatures overnight and more warm temperatures during the day.