GTA Mops Up From More Record Rain As Worst Of Weather Moves Off For Now

There’s an old joke about Toronto’s unrelenting soggy summer – it’s been ‘raining’ longer than Queen Victoria. But for those who’ve endured flooded basements, drenched driveways and river-like roads, it’s anything but funny.

Toronto officially broke a two decade-old record on Wednesday, when the afternoon storm hit Pearson International Airport around 2pm, giving us a total of 272.8 millimetres for the months of June and July.

Current totals aren’t all in yet, but we hit an astounding 269.8 millimetres of rain in the two months as of Tuesday. June’s downpour equalled 110.4mm. Average is only 71. July so far – not including Wednesday’s mega-cloudburst – has already seen 159.4mm soaking the ground. We should get only around 67 as a monthly average.

The totals easily smash the existing mark of 271.5 set in 1980. And there’s still more than a week left before August arrives – and more storms are in the forecast. ( Check the 7-day forecast here.)

The immediate impact of this latest deluge was – like the previous 24 hours – quick, intense and drenching. And few areas of the GTA were spared.

At Major Mackenzie and Jane (top left), crews and cops were both out and the road was closed as a flood swamped the normally busy intersection.

There was ponding and pooling on the DVP and Gardiner and the major 400 series of highways were seriously slowed down by the ironically named driving rain.

Oshawa was flooded with an incredible 40 millimetres in just a few hours, submerging some roads and leaving cars looking more like boats than automobiles. Reports of penny sized hail didn’t help matters.

North York was blasted with 34mm. At popular G. Ross Lord Park, in the Dufferin and Steeles area, parts of the green space were off limits to visitors who might have ventured there on a normal summer’s day. Paths leading downhill suddenly trailed off into deep water, and can swamp inattentive strollers or bikers in an instant.

And nearby Thornhill, where the storm struck with a vengeance on Tuesday, was waterlogged again, as 30 more millimetres went down their already swollen drains.

By contrast, Newmarket escaped with just 11mm, while Ajax was almost dry. Just 6mm fell there.

See more of Wednesday’s storm effects in our exclusive gallery, below.

A severe weather watch and warning was out for a large number of areas, but they’ve since been cancelled. But that doesn’t mean we’re out of the water woods yet. There could still be more rain during the late evening and showers are in the forecast at least until Friday.

And after a very long winter that had us shoveling non-stop, all this liquid sunshine is driving the locals crazy. Many feel after a brutal bout with never-ending snow, Mother Nature owed us a better summer than we’ve had.

“I hate it!” emotes one father, trying to get his brood to enjoy the not-so-great outdoors. “Because I took the family camping in Elora Gorge up near Guelph. It rained the whole time.”

“I think it sucks,” another man adds bluntly. “I came up from Vancouver and it’s still raining!”

Still, some are making the best of it. “We decided we’ve got to get the little ones out so we came for a picnic,” explains Gina Brillinger as she sits inside the shield of her open SUV to escape the drops. “You can’t let it stop you. Otherwise you’ll be in half the summer.”

All this non-stop moisture has created hazards around creeks, streams and lakes, which have risen dramatically. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has issued its eleventh high water safety bulletin warning this year. “The major issue for the Authority at this time is public safety and having people be aware that they need to stay well back from the creeks, keep an eye on their kids and their pets,” reveals spokesperson Laurian Ferrell.

So what’s causing all this non-stop soaking? The same thing that brought us such a miserable winter.

“The La Nina’s been weakening but we’re still in that similar atmospheric pattern we had in the wintertime that brought us all that snow,” explains CityNews meteorologist Michael Kuss. “It’s weakening a little bit so it’s not totally unrealistic that it is causing some of the precipitation taking the storm track directly across southern Ontario. That’s what we saw for the winter and we’re still getting that through a good chunk of the summer. And that’s why we have all this rainfall with the jet stream almost flowing directly overhead.”

The problem: the system that’s bringing us all this endless precip. is like an unwanted relative who comes for a week and stays for months. It simply won’t move on, leaving us to experience the deja vu of the same weather over and over and over.

It’s another marvel of Nature’s unpredictability for Environment Canada weather guru Dave Phillips, who always tries to look on the bright side of things – even if there’s not much sun to see it by.  He points out this record rain is keeping the grass and gardens blooming, the crops growing and the reservoirs filled, after 2007’s near drought.

But while some commodities – like corn, soybean and apples – are soaking up the wild wetness, it’s not all good news for farmers. Jeff Nurse is raising wheat. He’s got a good crop this year, but it’s been too unsettled to harvest it – and the time to get to it is rapidly passing him by. He simply can’t get a combine out while the weather and the land are both so soggy.

Bert Andrews is having similar troubles at his Andrews Scenic Acres. “Now it’s way too much of a good thing,” he laments. “In particular the raspberries because the raspberries are a very fragile fruit and they can’t take a lot of rain.”

Not only is the crop suffering but customers who would normally come to pick the fresh fruit are staying away because of the conditions.

And even Phillips admits not everyone will see the pot of gold at the end of these endless rainbows. “For young people wanting to drink beer on outdoor patios, it may just be a bummer of a summer,” he laughs. 

Weather leaves trail of destruction across southern Ontario

So what should we be getting during what’s traditionally considered the summer months? Here’s what the record books from Pearson International Airport have to say.

Average Rainfall by Month

May: 73.3 mm

June: 71.5 mm

July: 67.5 mm

August: 79.6 mm

September: 83.4mm

All Time One Day Rain Records

Bad as things have been, we haven’t quite broken the all time one day record for rain. These summer downpours left quite a 24 hour mess behind. Fortunately, with one exception, few of us were around to remember them.

May 21, 1894: 68.6mm

June 28, 1957: 63.5mm

July 27, 1897: 98.6mm

August 15, 1905: 93.5mm

September 14, 1843: 87.9mm

See the 7-day forecast here.