A freezing rain warning for most of the Northwest region, including Kenora, Dryden, Red Lake, Sioux Lookout and Atikokan.
Environment Canada issued the warning Wednesday, forecasting that freezing rain would continue through the afternoon and could turn into freezing drizzle. The precipitation can lead to slippery conditions.
Environment Canada meteorologist Daniel Liota said there is a west-east warm front that's straight across the region.
“That's essentially the catalyst for some patchy freezing rain that we've been seeing kind of throughout the better part of the afternoon,” he said.
Liota said the freezing rain will turn into a freezing drizzle into Wednesday evening, adding the difference between the two are the size of the drops.
“In terms of impacts, freezing drizzle can be just as impactful [as freezing rain], if not more impactful because the lighter precipitation rates can actually create more efficiently on surfaces,” he said.
“The forecast going forward will be a risk of freezing drizzle in areas across northwestern Ontario this evening through tomorrow morning and potentially even into the afternoon for areas west of Thunder Bay, especially over higher terrain areas out towards Ignace and out towards the Dryden area.”
Liota said there is a system that will be coming over Lake Superior, which will bring in more precipitation.
“So the freezing drizzle risk will eventually transition to periods of light snow for much of the Northwest by tomorrow evening. Areas near the shoreline of [Lake Superior] could potentially see a mix or transition to even some rain for a short time Thursday night.
Liota said Thunder Bay could see a couple of centimetres of snow at most, but areas just west of Thunder Bay — like Atikokan — could get 5 to 10 centimetres again tomorrow evening.
