As the adage goes, April showers bring May flowers. But what do July showers bring? Well, Ottawa residents are probably hoping the answer isn’t even more showers.
Largely thanks to two “walloping storms” bookending this month, this July will officially mark the rainiest month Ottawa has experienced in more than 150 years of weather data collection, according to retired climatologist David Phillips.
So far, around 270 millimetres of rain have been recorded at the Ottawa International Airport throughout the month of July, surpassing the previous record of 250 millimetres set in July 1899, Phllips said.
“What (Ottawa) has had in the month of July this year represents 40 per cent of the rain you would usually get for the whole year,” Phillips said. “That is significant.”
July started off with a massive 118-millimetre rainstorm on Canada Day, which flooded thousands of basements as residents across the city continue to rebuild and recover from the damage .
July will also finish on a rainy note. A slow-moving, multi-day storm has already caused another 70 mm of rain to hit the ground as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, with conditions expected to clear by Friday .
“There was flash flooding at the beginning of the month, and at the end there’s a similar problem with too much rain, but it has come more slowly,” Phillips said. “It soaks in the ground, and the ground can’t take it because (Ottawa) has had so much rain this month.”
It’s rare for Ottawa to see more than 200 millimetres of rain in a single month, Phillips said. And what makes this month particularly notable, is that all of Ottawa’s rainfall has come over the course of nine days. Usually, he said, the city can expect about 12 rainy days on average in July.
“It isn’t a water torture test where every day it’s raining in the morning, noon and night, but when it rained, it was like a gully washer, and that is where you get pooling and flooding,” he said.
After June’s rainfall totals were also above average, with 124 millimetres hitting the ground when the city typically gets 95 millimetres, Phillips said Ottawa may be looking at one of its wettest summers on record.
Ottawa typically sees about 80 millimetres of rain in August, meaning an average month would bring the city’s rainfall total to about 475 millimetres for the three summer months.
“It doesn’t have to rain at all in August, and it’ll be a wet summer,” he said.
