Ottawa Is Living Through Its Wettest Summer on Record, With More Rain Still to Come

Ottawa is on pace for its wettest summer on record, with Environment Canada issuing another severe thunderstorm watch for the region Wednesday as a stretch of unusually persistent rain continues into mid August.
The city has already seen record breaking precipitation totals this season, following a summer marked by repeated heavy downpours, including the July 1 storm that flooded thousands of basements across the city and prompted an ongoing municipal and provincial recovery response. Wednesday’s watch followed a string of earlier thunderstorm warnings issued through the region over recent weeks.
Meteorologists say the pattern has been driven by a persistent flow of moisture moving through the region, producing repeated rounds of heavy rainfall rather than the drier, more typical stretches Ottawa residents are used to by this point in the summer. Forecasters caution that additional rain remains likely in the days ahead, with the ground in many areas still saturated from previous storms, raising the risk of further localized flooding even from moderate rainfall.
Residents in low lying and flood prone areas are being encouraged to monitor local weather alerts closely and to have basement flooding precautions in place given how saturated the ground already is heading into any new storm system.