Feel like it’s rained every day, Ontario? You’re not imagining it
Many communities across Ontario haven’t had a chance to dry out since the beginning of the year
We’re one-third of the way through the year and it feels like it’s rained or snowed just about every day for many folks across Ontario.
For once, the data backs up that perception.
Quite a few communities throughout the province have strung together an impressive streak of wet days since the beginning of the year.
DON’T MISS: Sudden summer or sputtering spring: Which side are you on this May?
A stunning lack of dry days in a row
It’s easier to count the dry days than the wet days.
Toronto’s longest dry streaks so far this year were only four days long, between March 1-4 and again between April 20-24. Guelph is in a similar boat, with March 1-4 marking its longest dry streak of the year.
Hamilton’s longest dry streak so far in 2026 was even shorter, only managing to string together three precipitation-free days between March 2-4 and April 21-23.
Northern Ontario hasn’t been immune from the pattern, either. Spring showers continued to dominate the skies across Sault Ste. Marie even after a season of record-breaking snows, where three days is our longest dry streak to this point in the year.
How does 2026 stack up so far across Ontario?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, precipitation totals are ticking up the charts compared to previous years.
Toronto measured 336 mm of precipitation through the first four months of the year, ranking a few millimetres behind 2023 to claim the second-place prize.
RELATED: What’s the wettest month in your corner of Canada?
This was the wettest first four months of the year up the road in Wiarton, where 557 mm of precipitation from January through April blows away the previous record of 517 mm set back in 2013.
Repetitive patterns tell the tale in a soggy province
It’s relatively rare to see multiple cities with such short, narrow windows of dry weather through the first one-third of the year.
Numerous lake-effect snow events followed intrusions of cold air through the middle of the winter season. Spring arrived with an active storm track across the Great Lakes, with limited ridging or blocking in the atmosphere to keep those systems at bay.
While the driving factors have shifted with the seasons, they all add up to a persistently wet pattern.
Folks hoping for a change aren’t in luck over the next few weeks.
The wetter-than-normal pattern is set to continue throughout May as an unsettled storm track remains parked over the Great Lakes region.
Many cities across southern and central Ontario will still struggle to string together more than a handful of dry days in a row as long as this pattern continues.
Header image created using graphics and imagery from Canva.