(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-09 19:31

OTTAWA -- An unseasonable heat wave is hitting Canada's central Ontario and Quebec provinces, bringing about unusually high temperatures and creating flooding concerns as melting snow and rain threatens to overflow river banks.

The town of Vallee-Jonction, located southeast of Quebec City, was ordered to evacuate Tuesday after a nearby river overflowed its banks.

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Meanwhile, officials in Huntingdon, located southwest of Montreal and just north of the US border, are setting up shelters and finalizing emergency plans in case flood waters poured into the town's main streets.

"The level of the Chateauguay River is very high, we're at two inches below a flood. We're distributing leaflets for a potential evacuation that would come tonight if we receive rain," Stephane Gendron, mayor of Huntingdon, told reporters Tuesday.

A second local river, the A-la-truite or Trout, is also threatening to breach its banks. Authorities have closed some highways in the area and residents of low-lying areas are preparing for flooding.

In Ontario, patches of dense fog have occurred from Windsor in the southwest to North Bay near the Quebec border as spring-like temperatures sent snow banks thawing.

Toronto's temperature hit 14.08 C by noon Tuesday, surpassing the record level of 14 C Monday. The average for this period is -1.8 C.

The balmy weather had residents outdoors doing chores around the house such as raking leaves and taking down Christmas decorations in a T-shirt.

The temperature is expected to stay a few degrees above the freezing mark for the next few days, and then return to normal by the weekend, forecasters said.

Federal agency Environment Canada have predicted a heavy rainfall from Ontario border to Quebec City in coming days. Parts of Ontario could get 20 to 40 millimeters of rain by Wednesday, it warned.

For this winter season up to last week, Ontario and Quebec had been under the grip of unusual cold and heavy snowfalls. Environment Canada had predicted that most of Canada would experience a much colder winter than previous years.

Environmental activists have expressed concern about the current mild temperatures and its connection to climate change.

"We should be worried about this," said Franz Hartman of the Toronto Environmental Alliance. "We can enjoy today, but we should be thinking about what can we do to make sure that this sort of warm Januaries don't become a thing of the future."