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this summer has been the rainiest season on record in montreal
the remnants of post-tropical storms beryl and debby "propped up the precipitation amounts quite a bit," meteorologist says.
aug 21 2024
2 minute read
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if it wasn’t already obvious, let the record show: this summer is the rainiest season montreal has seen since environment canada first began keeping track in 1942.
that’s in large part due to the remnants of post-tropical storms beryl and debby , which dropped significant rainfall onto the city in july and august, said jean-philippe bégin, a weather preparedness meteorologist for environment and climate change canada.
“having those two propped up the precipitation amounts quite a bit,” he said.
the city has received about 440 millimetres of precipitation so far in june, july and august, making it the rainiest season overall and the wettest summer since 1972, when the record stood at about 417.
beryl and debby hit the city ahead of the atlantic basin’s hurricane season, which typically runs from mid-august to mid-october and peaks in september, bégin explained, meaning the peak is still ahead.
“but that doesn’t mean that we’ll be in the trajectory of more remnants,” he said. “it’s still a possibility, but there are years when we don’t have any remnants at all.”
this summer was montreal’s rainiest on record.
environment and climate change canada
the remnants of debby paralyzed montreal this month, leaving behind a record 150 millimetres of rain that flooded homes, streets and highways and postponed several outdoor events.
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that precipitation, coupled with rainfall afterward, pushed it to the second-wettest august on record in the city. about 196 millimetres of precipitation have fallen this month — without counting tuesday and wednesday’s rainfalls — about 30 millimetres shy of the record of 225 set in 2011.
the total probably will sit somewhere around 210 millimetres once tuesday and wednesday are factored in, bégin said. it remains to be seen whether this august will come out on top.
“the month’s not over, but we don’t see significant storm systems in the near or even medium-term future, so let’s say for the next week or so at least,” bégin said. “and in about a week, we’ll be at the end of august, so we’ll see if maybe the last days of august we’ll receive more.”
as to whether the city can expect more post-tropical storms as a result of climate change, bégin stressed that they’re part of our climate. there won’t be more of them, but they will be more intense when they occur.
“we are not expecting more remnants of tropical cyclones essentially affecting us, but once there’s a tropical cyclone or a hurricane forming, there’s more potential for it to become stronger because there’s more energy available, so more precipitation, higher winds,” he said. “once there’s one targeting us, we may face a more extreme event because of climate change.”
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