Record-Breaking Rainfall of 2013

Not my photos - Flooding on lower DVP. GO Train stranded. Ferrari on Lower Simcoe St.

Last Monday, July 8th started out like any other Monday in July for most of people in Toronto. But, by the end of the day it was a different story to say the least.

From the late afternoon (perhaps around 5:00 p.m.) onwards the skies opened up and a deluge of water fell. So much, in fact, that it broke a single day record for rainfall that had lasted nearly 60 years (since October, 1954). That was when Hurricane Hazel dumped 121 mm of rain on the city in one day. More rain actually fell in a few hours than during the whole day during a hurricane if you can believe it.

After all was said and done 126 mm of rain was recorded at Pearson International Airport. According to a report on TheStar.com (Toronto Star online) a mind-boggling 90 mm of rain fell in a two hour period. 90 mm!! Statistics on TheWeatherNetwork.com say the average rainfall for Toronto in the month of July is 67 mm. We nearly doubled that in one day.

Before the rain had started I had just finished my deliveries and was back at the office. My co-worker Steven was there too finishing some stuff up. We didn't notice the rain at first since we were inside and there aren't any windows. But we have security cameras hooked up and happened to glance at them at one point. That's when we saw the downpour. At first I thought it was hail, it was coming down so hard.

After sitting in the office a while longer I thought I'd take a stab at going home. My car was parked less than 10 feet away from our front door, but the rain was coming down so heavily I dared not step outside. I waited for a bit then Steven came out to go home. After seeing how much it was raining he too retreated inside to wait it out.

When the rain finally let up a bit we ran outside. It was still coming down quite heavily, but we didn't want to wait any longer. Only a few feet from the door the water in the parking lot had rising dramatically. It was something we hadn't noticed before. I couldn't even walk around the back of my car without stepping into fairly deep water. I was so happy I didn't park on the opposite side of the parking lot this day or I'd have to swim there.

On the way to my parents' place I noticed surface flooding in many places along the roads. It was pretty crazy. There were mini rivers all over the place.

As it turned out the southern end of the Don Valley Parkway flooded again (the same thing happened a few weeks ago during another heavy rainstorm). Several vehicle were stranded in what now was an extension of the Don River. The same thing happened with a GO Train bound for Richmond Hill. Some passengers were stranded onboard for 11 hours while waiting to be rescued by boat.

Of course there were the power outages. The worst hit area was Etobicoke. It is supplied power by the Richview and Manby transmission stations both of which were flooded. I heard one of them had to pump out the equivalent of 15 swimming pools worth of water (not sure how large a pool that would have been).

My friends Lawrence and Taku (who live close together in the affected area) were without power for around 40 hours I believe. That means no air conditioning in the stifling heat and humidity and no power for your refrigerator. The city had a special, extra garbage day for the citizens in that area to throw out spoiled food.

The TTC was also messed up due to flooding and lack of power. It took many people hours upon hours to get home because of that. Since the subways weren't running people either had to hoof it or call a friend for a lift. But, of course, the streets were completely chaotic because of the water and power outages. So driving was extremely trying.

Most of the subways were up and running the following day. All but the west end (Etobicoke again). 70 shuttle buses transported passengers from Jane to Kipling stations along the Bloor/Danforth line for much of Tuesday because of flooding.