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It’s been a record-breaking summer weather-wise in Montreal.
It was both the rainiest season ever recorded in the city and one of the hottest summers of the past 150 years, according to a summary report by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Last month was also the rainiest August on record as a result of post-tropical storm Debby, which brought an unprecedented amount of rain to many areas across the province on Aug. 9.
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“In particular, the Montreal airport recorded 154 millimetres of rain in a single day, setting new records across the entire data history: annual, seasonal and for the month of August,” Environment Canada said in its report.
The city received 229.3 millimetres of rain in August, breaking the previous record of 224.8 millimetres set in 2011 and representing double the typical amount for the month.
Across the province, “more than 1,000 homes were flooded, 170 roads were damaged, several landslides and cases of slumping occurred and one fatality was reported” due to post-tropical storm Debby, the agency said. “Wind gusts between 75 and 95 kilometres per hour knocked out power to 550,000 customers on the evening of Aug. 9.”
Southern Quebec was also hit with heavy rain a little over a week after Debby, bringing an additional 40 to 70 millimetres of precipitation to some regions, the agency noted.
“As the soil was still saturated with water, two landslides occurred in the Outaouais and the Laurentians on Aug. 19.”
As far as temperature is concerned, this summer has been unusually hot across the province in general, Environment Canada noted.
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“Also remarkable is the fact that virtually all the main stations have recorded above-normal temperatures over the past nine months,” the agency said.
It attributed the unusual values over the summer to intense heat waves, which involved both high temperatures and persistent humidity — notably at the end of July and beginning of August, before a cold air mass descended on Quebec.
“The below-normal temperatures that came with this cooler air were followed by a return to normal conditions before high heat and humidity returned to the province on Aug. 15,” Environment Canada said.
The end of the month saw temperatures drop once again, to levels typical of September.
Environment Canada expects temperatures to hover around seasonal values for the month of September, though they may be slightly higher in northern and easternmost regions.
“There is currently no clear trend for forecast precipitation amounts,” the agency said. “However, it should be noted that the hurricane season is still underway in the tropics at this time of year, and the possibility of remnants of tropical systems reaching Quebec cannot be ruled out.”
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