Residents of southern Ontario could be in for a wet and rainy Sunday after a record-setting rainfall a day earlier.
Environment Canada says a heavy rainfall warning is still in effect for a region that includes the Greater Toronto Area, with more than 100 millimetres of precipitation expected in some areas.
The federal weather agency says the rain comes after Saturday’s downpour saw 128.3 millimetres fall at Toronto Pearson Airport.
That tops the 2013 record of 126 millimetres recorded at the airport, which is on tap for its rainiest summer ever.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Trudy Kidd said seasonal data isn’t always complete, but available numbers already make the outcome clear.
The previous record for summer rainfall stood at 396.2 millimetres, but Kidd says the airport has already seen 475.7 millimetres this season.
“It’s fair to say that this has been a record breaking season,” she said.
The weekend rain in the region is part of a larger storm system that wreaked havoc in southern Ontario on Saturday.
The rain triggered numerous road closures in the Toronto area and stranded several vehicles in deep water, Toronto police said.
The City of Toronto said Sunday that operations are largely running normally, but there has been a spike in calls about basement flooding.
Rain wasn’t the only extreme weather to hit the region. A tornado touched down Saturday morning in the community of Ayr, Ont., about 115 kilometres southwest of Toronto.
Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project confirmed the twister touched down around 11 a.m., bringing with it winds that reached 165 kilometres an hour.
The project’s executive director, David Sills, says his teams are still assessing the size of the storm.
“We’ve got trees down in every direction possible,” Sills said, but noted “this one was on the weak side.”
The showers and thunderstorms are forecast to taper off by Monday afternoon and become isolated showers.
Mississauga reports nearly 140 mm of rainfall
On Saturday, the City of Mississauga reported all creeks and rivers in the city were either at capacity or flooding into parks and greenspaces, with emergency crews rescuing stranded drivers and pedestrians due to the heavy water pooling.
In a news release issued Sunday, the city said it had received up to 138 millimetres of rainfall Saturday, though amounts varied across Mississauga.
“Flood waters have generally receded across the city; however, residents are encouraged to exercise caution around rivers, creeks and streams, as they are running high and the surrounding grounds are saturated,” the release said.
All roads are open as of Saturday morning, the city said.
Sports fields, meanwhile, will be closed until Monday, when they can be “reassessed,” after the heavy rain, according to the release.
The city said it has activated its incident management team and is “actively monitoring conditions and responding as the need arises,” adding that additional staff resources were brought in to respond to changing weather conditions Sunday.
As a result of the heavy rain this weekend, the 165th annual King’s Plate, Canada’s oldest horse race hosted by Woodbine Racetrack in Etobicoke, was also rescheduled. The race was set to begin Saturday, but heavy rains caused unsafe racing conditions, the racetrack said.