Summer rainstorms shatter city records

Saturday's 128 mm marked new high at Pearson in already damp season

The summer's extreme weather continues to break records, with Pearson International Airport seeing its highest daily rainfall as Saturday's storm dropped 128.3 millimetres.

The record comes just weeks after another storm caused an estimated $1 billion in damage in Toronto, raising concerns about how municipalities will cope with increasingly unpredictable weather caused by climate change.

While downtown Toronto saw only 3.7 millimetres of rain on Saturday, the deluge in Mississauga surpassed the 11-year-old airport record-set on July 8, 2013, when 126 millimetres fell while flooding roads, stranding cars and passengers, and forcing the closing of some city parks and trails.

With several weeks to go, this summer has surpassed the previous Pearson record for seasonal rainfall of 396.2 millimetres, with the airport seeing more than 475.7 millimetres already.

"It's fair to say that this has been a record-breaking season," said Environment Canada meteorologist Trudy Kidd.

Mississauga fire Chief Deryn Rizzi said in an interview on Sunday that Saturday's rain accumulated so quickly at Queen Frederica Drive and Dundas Street East, in the city's southeast, that a platoon chief told her not only did the floodwaters reach the roof of a nearby car, but they made an audible impact when they hit.

"You can just hear the water and you can see the velocity of how fast the water was moving through those city streets," Rizzi said of the many videos taken during the rescues, including one of a firefighter carrying a young boy.

Even a day after the torrential rains, the water could overwhelm local infrastructure.

On Sunday evening, Mississauga firefighters reported on X having to remove the occupants of five vehicles stranded on a flooded part of Highway 410.

Firefighters were then tasked, Mississauga Fire said, with "clearing the catch basins to help the water slowly recede."