WATCH: Massive ice shove nudges Ontario lighthouse
Sunday's powerful winds have caused at least one ice shove on the shores of Lake Erie, where a Weather Network viewer snapped a video of one climbing up against a lighthouse in Leamington, Ont.
The winds are courtesy of a Colorado low that rolled through Ontario overnight, bringing rain to much of the south of the province and snow to the north and east. As of Sunday afternoon, peak wind gusts have been greater than 80 km/h in some lakeside communities, with Environment Canada reporting a gust of 91 km/h at Long Point.
Ice shoves -- also known as ice tsunamis -- occur when high, unidirectional winds cause ice to break up over a body of water and then pile up along the shore. Ocean currents and simple temperature differences can also cause the effect, where ice appears to 'climb' out of the water and grow into immense, unstoppable walls of ice chunks; sometimes heaping up more than 10 metres high.
Similarly strong winds, combined with high lake water levels, causing widespread ice shoves on Lake Erie in late February and triggering localized evacuations in some communities, along with warnings for people to keep their distance from the massive heaps of ice afterward.
This weekend's system has been accompanied by temperatures rising comfortably above zero, melting snow from past storms. The result has been rising water levels on the province's rivers, along with raised fears of ice jams.
Some communities on both sides of the border have even taken steps to break up the ice even before the melt arrived, trying to head off flooding caused by inevitable ice jams.
There's more melting ahead for southern Ontario. Temperatures in the wake of the low's departure are expected to continue above zero -- and in fact, may even climb into the teens by Thursday.
WATCH BELOW: TEMPERATURES SET TO SKYROCKET IN ONTARIO
With files from Caroline Floyd
