Toronto Smashes Summer Rain Record
Posted August 9, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s official.
Torontonians have endured the soggiest summer ever and we’re not even halfway through August.
On Saturday we smashed the previous summer rainfall record set back in 1986 when 335.9 millimetres of precipitation fell between June 1st and Aug. 31st.
Twenty-four millimetres of rain fell at a CityNews‘ Weather Station at Lancaster Public School Saturday, which is just a stone’s throw from Pearson International Airport where the previous record was set.
We needed just 8mm Saturday to surpass that mark.
“It’s not close at all. Clearly today is the day we set the record for the wettest summer on record,” Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips said.
After a July of record rain that made Torontonians feel more like Vancouverites, August has ushered in much of the same with rain forecast through Sunday.
And if you feel as though nearly every weekend of your summer has been a washout, you’d be nearly right. Eighteen of the last 25 weekend days have been soakers.
To make matters worse, the temperature dipped to an unseasonably low 16C Saturday. The norm for this time of year is around 26C.
The soggy weather prompted many club-goers in the Entertainment District to rethink their attire.
“My friends are going out and I’m freezing and I want to go home and put on pajamas and watch a movie,” Tamara Granatstein admitted.
But thousands of hungry revellers donned slickers and picked up umbrellas to take full advantage of the celebration of Greek culture and cuisine at the Taste of the Danforth.
And many others decided to head out in the rain to celebrate Chinese culture on Spadina at the eighth annual Chinatown Festival.
Click here for the latest seven-day forecast.
