Toronto close to setting rainfall record
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | 8:48 AM ET
CBC News
Rain is forecast to sweep across the Toronto area again on Wednesday — and Environment Canada said the city is just a few millimetres away from setting a precipitation record for the months of June and July.
Heavy thunderstorms hit southern Ontario on Tuesday night and in some areas what fell from the sky was hail.
According to Environment Canada, 2008 has been one of the wettest summers ever in the Greater Toronto Area and it's only July. The agency said about 240 millimetres of rain has fallen since the beginning of last month.
Another 30 millimetres would break the decades-old record of 270 millimetres of rain for the the June July period. The old record was 271.5 millimetres set in 1980.
At the height of last summer, only about 88 millimetres had been recorded by Environment Canada.
Had to abandon swim
Tuesday night's storm also forced a 14-year-old girl from Kingston, Ont., to abandon her bid to swim across Lake Ontario.
Natalie Lambert left Niagara-on-the-Lake at about 7:20 a.m. Tuesday and was pulled from the water 15 hours later at about 10:20 p.m., just seven kilometres from the Toronto shoreline.
Her swim team leader, John Munro, said a storm was tracking south and west when all of a sudden, the "winds came up and the lightning was right overhead," so he made a decision to make sure everybody was safe.
Wednesday's forecast for the GTA calls for showers in the morning and the afternoon, with thunderstorms moving in during the evening.
With files from the Canadian Press
