Fountains shoot columns of water up into the air at Nathan Phillips Square on May 30, 2016.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Toronto, you've survived the agonizing heat wave. Now comes the sweet respite of rain.
The city awoke Tuesday morning to significant rainfall, and it could be gearing up for the wettest day of the summer with a severe thunderstorm watch in effect.
Environment Canada forecasted 15 to 25 millimetres of rain for Tuesday in a special weather advisory, but a chunk of that already fell overnight and Tuesday morning, said Geoff Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.
As of 2 p.m., 17.4 mm of rain had fallen in downtown Toronto, according to Environment Canada.
The worst of the steady rain has moved off to the east, Mr. Coulson said, but the city remains under an unstable air mass that could produce torrential rain and damaging wind gusts in the afternoon.
"This is something we haven't seen much of this summer," Mr. Coulson said, referring to an unusually dry summer that has yellowed lawns, scorched crops and tormented Toronto residents.
The low-pressure air mass originated in Texas and produced devastating flooding in Louisiana, which has killed at least eight people and damaged 40,000 homes. The system has now moved northwards to southern Ontario.
"We're still getting gulf moisture with this system and it is giving some fairly widespread rain amounts, but not with the same intensity," Mr. Coulson said.
It could be enough to surpass the 28 mm of rain that fell in Toronto on Saturday, the wettest day of the summer.
While the rain will offer relief to farmers and gardeners, it won't remedy the "record levels" of dryness across southern Ontario, Mr. Coulson said. "A couple of wet days are not going to be reversing a trend that's been going on for months."
Even with the rain, it will still feel muggy, Mr. Coulson cautioned, with a forecast in the high 20s and low 30s for the rest of the work week. A comfortable air mass will move in on Sunday, when the the high will reach a pleasant 24 degrees.
Some pockets of rain may pop up over the weekend, but nothing steady like today's rainfall, Mr. Coulson said.
Transportation services staff in the city are cleaning catch basins and keeping an eye on high-risk flood spots, including the Beaches and the Yonge and York Mills areas.
Pearson International Airport reported no uptick in delays, but advised passengers to check their flight status and give themselves extra travel time to the airport.