Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement calling for a lot of rain starting tonight as the remnants of Hurricane Patricia move through the Great Lakes region.
A rainfall warning has ended for Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent.
The Essex Region Conservation Authority has issued a flood watch as forecasts predict up to 50 mm (1.9 in) of rain tonight and tomorrow. They also caution people living near a shoreline that high winds may cause erosion and break wall damage.
ERCA says the areas most at risk for flooding are east Windsor, Tecumseh, western parts of Lakeshore along Lake St. Clair, the east shoreline of Leamington and the north and east portions of Pelee Island.
"It's going to last a couple of days," says severe weather specialist Mitch Meredith. "A large amount of rain will be moving in probably later this evening, but that rain really gets heavy early Wednesday morning. And, there's a cold front going to sweep across the region it looks like early Thursday, and so the wind will be quite gusty."
The agency says Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent can expect between 25mm (.9in) to 40mm (1.5in), although areas near Lake Erie could get up to 50mm (1.9in) within 24 hours. Some of those wind gusts could be up to 90km/hr (55mph), strong enough to damage trees and cause power outages.
"It looks like the shoreline will be highest impacted," Meredith says. "We do have fairly warm waters in Lake Erie and that sometimes mixes up the winds and gives us a little bit higher gusts."
Meredith admits it's unusual for a storm that formed in the Pacific Ocean to make it this far northeast.
Environment Canada says the storm should pass by Friday.
-- with files from Jason Viau.