It’s been several years since southern Albertans have experienced as wet a July as it has been this year.
“We had a dry May and June, and July seems to want to make up for it,” Doug Kaupp, the City of Lethbridge’s water and wastewater manager, said. “We are seeing 50 to 100 per cent more rain this July.”
According to Environment Canada, this is the wettest July since 2008.
“There have been a few noticeable precipitation events,” Environment Canada meteorologist Kirk Torneby said. “One of them was on the 13th, one on the 15th… another on the 22nd and again on the 28th.”
READ MORE: Calgary has already exceeded July average rainfall totals
With just two days left until the end of July, Lethbridge has already seen over 75 millimetres of rainfall, which is over 30 per cent more than the average for this time of year.
The short but intense downpours have cause localized flooding, leaving motorists to navigate large puddles and also impacting homeowners.
“When you’re talking about weather in small scale, there is more things for it to impact than ever before,” Torneby said, adding increased urbanization means the weather events can cause more problems.
City officials say they are doing what they can to manage the storms and point out the amount of rain is not a problem. Instead, they say the number of consecutive storms has caused issues for the water drainage system.
“There will always be a rain event, or a storm surpasses the capacity of the system,” Kaupp said. “Because we have infrastructure that is over 100 years old, the standards that we designed has changed over time.”
The city says it is working hard to keep up and has a crew on call 24 hours a day.
“The idea is to move the stormwater directly to the river to protect property,” Kaupp said.
There is one very visible upside to the storms: it’s been a while since the city has been so lush and green.
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