After a dry start to the year, the city of Calgary has made up for lost time.
July brought in over 200 millimetres of rain, more than three times the monthly average of 65.5 mm.
The annual rainfall average for Calgary is 326.4 mm. As of July 31 Calgary has had 337.9 mm of rain so far this year.
This comes on the heels of a near-record dry start to the year. As of mid-March Calgary only had a measurable amount of snow eight days in 2016. If this were not a leap year, the city would not have recorded any snow for the entire month of February.
READ MORE: Calgary set to make weather history for February
At the beginning of the year the weather story was focused on the record heat and dry weather thanks to this being an El Niño winter. As that has shifted into a La Niña pattern, there has been a ton of precipitation and instability.
There were only eight dry days in July. On average it will rain 10 days in Calgary in July according to the 30-year statistics from Environment Canada.
The last few days of July have been particularly wet. Since July 28 there has been 63.8 mm of rain. There has been more precipitation since July 17 than the entire first six months of 2016. January 1 to June 30, 2016 there was 91.2 mm of of water equivalent precipitation. July 17 – July 31 there was 94 mm of rain.
ACTIVE WEATHER
July is typically the second wettest month of the year, thunderstorms are certainly not uncommon and this is mid-season for tornadic activity.
But even that severe weather phenomena got off to an early start for Alberta, with the first confirmed tornado for our province happening April 13.
WATCH: A viewer captured video of what is believed to be Alberta’s first tornado of 2016.
Typically our province will average 15 tornadoes per year between April to September. We started July with at least four tornadoes in four days.
READ MORE: Alberta hit with 4 tornadoes in 4 days
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July has had all kinds of unusual weather from start to finish. This was the coldest July long weekend in at least 40 years. Then to end the month, a massive hail storm ripped through Calgary and area July 30 bringing tennis-ball sized hail and wind gusts in excess of 113 km/h east of the city.
An Air Canada plane bound for Calgary from Toronto that same night was forced to land in Lethbridge after a hailstone cracked its windshield.
WATCH: Calgary and area pummelled again, this time by a powerful hail storm that has left widespread damage over the weekend.
EXTREME WEATHER FORCING CANCELLATIONS
That July 30 system forced the Strathmore Stampede to cancel their chuckwagon races for the evening as the track was deemed unsafe.
This is just one of many events that have been affected by the wild weather this month.
WATCH BELOW: A number of local events have had to be cancelled in and around Calgary because of the wet weather.
If you feel like July has been full of warnings for the city of Calgary you would be correct. Environment Canada does not keep a running tally of their issued weather warnings, but looking back at our records we count 10 days in July 2016 with a severe thunderstorm warning for the city of Calgary. July 2015 only had 2 days with severe thunderstorm warnings here.
MORE TO COME
Unfortunately Calgary is just two-thirds of the way through its rainy season. August is typically the third wettest month of the year and September is the fifth wettest.
The good news is Monday should offer us a chance to dry up a bit. The forecast calls for sunshine with a high of 23 degrees Celsius.
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