Montreal flooding and another Ontario tornado

Several homes on Paquin Street in Ile Bizzard had to have their basements pumped by Montreal firefighters. (CJAD)

We had a very muggy, wet June 24 holiday in Montreal yesterday with showers and thunderstorms all day long hampering parades and B.B.Q's. The inclement weather was caused by a slow cold front moving south into very warm and mosit tropical air. The result was a day of thunderstorms across southern Ontario and Quebec. The rain accumulated about 12mm over the course of the daylight hours in Montreal, but really increased in intensity in the late evening as another 40mm fell. Over 30mm (1 inch) of that fell in just over one hour between 10:45 and midnight here on L'Ile Perrot. My total for the day was exactly 50mm (2 inches) with 40mm at the airport, and even more in other parts of the city. The heavy rain produced some flooding in several sections of the city including Ile Bizzard where at least 6 homes had major damage with up to 6 feet of water in their basements. Some highways also had to be temporarily closed by Transport Quebec to deal with water accumulation.

More tornado damage shown above in Ontario as the community of New Tecumseth was hit Tuesday afternoon by an EF-1 tornado. (The Weather Network)

TORNADO
In Ontario more severe weather was reported with an EF-1 tornado touching down in New Tecumseth, northwest of Toronto on Tuesday afternoon. The storm had winds in excess of 135km/h and was on the ground for at least 10 kilometers. Environment Canada will be assessing the damage today to provide more details on the 5th Ontario tornado this season. Another funnel cloud with rotation was reported closer to home in North Glengarry, Ontario. No damage was reported with that storm. Meanwhile Ottawa had 55mm of rain with flooding observed in several neighborhoods. Like Montreal, some city streets and highways had to be closed briefly as a result of water accumulation.

HOT WEATHER
What could be our first stretch of really hot summer weather is on the horizon. High pressure will pump warm and increasingly humid air from the US south into the St. Lawrence Valley and the Great Lakes starting as early as Saturday. It looks at this time like we could have several days of temperatures at or above 30C (86F) into next week. Until then temperatures will be in the 22 to 25C (72 to 77F) range with showers today and clearing skies on Thursday.