Rain-filled July in Toronto sees city rack up most wet days in the month
Toronto had a rainy July after a dry start to summer, with precipitation recorded on 19 of the 31 days -- making it the city's most wet days documented during the month
If you noticed July was a bit wet in Toronto, you were certainly paying attention.
Out of 31 days in the month, 19 featured measurable precipitation at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, the city's most rainy days in July since records began in 1938.
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The previous record of rainy days in July for Toronto was 18, a tally observed over numerous years (1950, 1994, 1995 and 2014).
The number is comparable with Hamilton and Ottawa, cities that also saw overachieving thunderstorms this month, resulting in 20 and 21 rainy days in July, respectively.
Besides Toronto, Sherbrooke, Que., has had a wet month. The Quebec city has measured at least 301 mm of rain in July, making for the city’s wettest month ever recorded. Four days accounted for a little over half of this July’s total rainfall.
What led to a rainy July in Toronto and the rest of Eastern Canada?
The relentless heat that broke countless records across the southern and western United States, and many parts of Canada, is largely responsible for the remarkably wet pattern over the eastern half of the country.
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The ridges of high pressure fostering high heat in western North America allowed troughs of lower pressure to develop downstream, effectively plopping an active storm track over Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes.
Winds circulating around that heat dome over the U.S., a summertime high over the western Atlantic Ocean, and a train of low-pressure systems forming over Canada collectively helped to pump tropical humidity straight into Eastern Canada.
These disturbances triggered routine thunderstorms in the muggy, unstable air, and the elevated moisture acted like a reservoir for thunderstorms to tap into and wring out torrential rains.
With files from Dennis Mersereau, a digital journalist at The Weather Network.
Thumbnail courtesy of Unsplash.
