Steady rain no saviour
Posted Jul 28, 2011 02:00:14 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The rain we received today is the greatest amount of one-day rainfall we’ve had in the entire month of July. In fact, the 4.5 millimetres from today surpasses the entire rainfall for the month to date. Until today, July had delivered but 3.5 millimetres of rain.
And that’s almost certain to leave July, 2011 as one of the driest on record.
“There was one crazy-dry July back in 1916 where we only had 1.8 millimetres throughout the whole month. So we’re already above that one,” notes Frank Seglenieks, co-ordinator of the University of Waterloo Weather Station. “In second place is 1919 when we had 20 millimetres (of rain for the month of July).”
As welcome as today’s rain was for many, it wasn’t as far-reaching as you might think. While Waterloo Region and some other areas across southwestern Ontario got several millimetres of rain, other areas were virtually shut out.
“The problem is that it’s still been relatively scattered. (The rain) has generally been from Kitchener-Waterloo to Windsor, in that kind of swath. North of us hasn’t even got that much from this system,” explains Segelnieks. “The rain is a little bit spotty, it breaks up at points, and it’s not a consistent rain over the whole area.”
As far as rain goes, this was better than most. The system provided steady if not substantial rainfall over several hours as opposed to a brief downpour. That kind of consistent watering is welcome to both farmers and home gardeners.
“The problem when you have a big deluge, or a convective thunderstorm, is that you get 10 millimetres of rain but it all comes within half an hour to an hour,” says Seglenieks. “A lot of that rain is just going to run right off the surface. It’s just going to hit the ground and not soak in.”
Seglenieks expects more rain overnight and into Friday.
