It’s no secret that it’s been a dry summer in Waterloo Region.
Prior to a line of thunderstorms developing over southern Ontario on Friday, a total of 86.8 mm of rainfall had been recorded at the Region of Waterloo International Airport since the beginning of June.
That’s a noticeable decrease from the same time period in 2015 (145.1 mm), 2014 (242.2 mm) and 2013 (285.7 mm) – but how does it compare over the longer term?
As it turns out, while most summers bring us far more rain, there have been two even drier ones since the turn of the century.
In 2007, 64 mm of rain fell between June 1 and Aug. 4. The rest of August brought no relief, with only 10.5 mm more precipitation being recorded by Aug. 31.
Six years before that, the region saw 74 mm of rainfall during between June 1 and Aug. 4 – with a further 57.8 mm falling in the rest of August.
On the flip side, the wettest summer Waterloo Region has seen since 2000 came in 2008, when 285 mm of rainfall was recorded in June and July, with 1 mm more in the first four days of August.
What about before the turn of the millennium? A search of the last 25 summers of the 20th century shows only one with less rainfall than we’ve seen thus far in 2016. In 1978, 78 mm of rainfall was recorded in Waterloo Region by Aug. 4.
