If you are a garden tomato, you probably noticed it. If you are an office tower worker or engrossed in Paris Olympics, maybe you didn’t. But a light shower that dampened Toronto on Tuesday afternoon could be enough to break a 70-year-old record — maybe.
The brief rainfall brings the total precipitation dropped over Pearson Airport last month to 215.4 millimetres as of July 30, according to weather station data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). That pushes the monthly total 1.5 millimetres higher than October 1954, the previous wettest month in Toronto history, according to the same data. History buffs will immediately perk up at that date: it was the month when flooding from Hurricane Hazel devastated the region, washing away subdivisions and changing the city forever.