Winds top 100 km/h in Waterloo Region

Peak wind gusts in Waterloo region hit 102 kilometres per hour as a sharp cold front swept across southern Ontario, bringing extremely high winds that downed trees and caused outages.

There were sustained winds between 60 to 70 kilometres per hour on Monday evening across the region and much of southwestern Ontario, prompting Environment Canada to issue a wind warning for the area.

"These winds will be strong enough to cause some tree damage, with a few power outages possible as a result," Environment Canada said in a news release."The strong and gusty winds will also result in difficult driving conditions, especially on highways exposed to strong cross winds."

Thestrong winds are expected to diminish later Monday night or Tuesday morning.

The Grand River Conservation Authority has also upgraded flood warnings for Ayr and New Hamburg to Level 2, as water levels on the Nith River rise from Monday's precipitation.

Dave Schultz of the Grand River Conservation Authority said flood levels will peak overnight in New Hamburg and Tuesday afternoon in Ayr.

"Anything you've got on the basement floor, lift it up to a higher level, if you have ways of closing off basement entrance, make sure that's in place. They might want to check if they have anything on their lawn that could float away," said Schultz Monday afternoon.

"Local works officials may be closing streets. So it they do, pay attention to those notices."

The warnings come as temperatures are expected to dip to 1 C from a high of 13 C during the day, due in large part to"a sharp Arctic cold front," according to Environment Canada.

Heavy rain alsohit the region at noon on Monday, causing some flashflooding on city streets in Kitchener, and more rain is expected throughout the afternoon, as well as a risk of thunderstorm.