Torontonians are still picking up the pieces following the massive rainstorm that swept through the city Monday night.
UTSC Climatology Professor Bill Gough and third year Environmental Science doctoral student Jerry Jien, who recently published a paper together on the impact of hurricanes on extreme rain events in southern Ontario, talk about the storm that rocked Toronto on July 8th, the conditions that created the massive rainfall and why flooding was so severe.
Gough: In my memory, the most extreme rainfall prior to Monday’s event I experienced occurred on July 14, 1987 when I was a second year doctoral student at McGill. In a matter of a couple of hours over 102 mm of rain fell. From my seventh floor window I watched as Sherbrooke Street filled with water and became a river. This time I was driving home from UTSC along the 401, encountering waves and waves of rainfall. Our power was out for eight hours but thanks to renovations a few years ago no flooding in the basement. Where were you, Jerry?