The summer of 2026 will go down in the record books as the wettest summer in Ottawa’s history, with more rain expected this week. A total of 510.1 millimetres of rain was recorded at the Ottawa Airport between June 1 and Aug. 12, breaking the previous record for the June, July and August period of 464 millimetres set in 1972. “When it rained, it rained hard, real soaking kinds of rain,” retired climatologist David Phillips told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Morning Rush with guest host Andrew Pinsent. Rain was recorded on 31 of the 72 days between June 1 and Aug. 12. Ottawa received 21.9 mm of rain on Wednesday. “When we look at what this summer has been so far, and we still have 20 days to go, you broke a record for the most amount of rain from June 1 until the end of August,” Phillips said. “As they say, every raindrop that falls now will just keep adding to that record. You really smashed the record.” Phillips says it hasn’t been a “depressing kind of a period” with rain, with several stretches of days without precipitation. The rainfall totals include 123.5 mm in June, 281.8 mm in July and 82.9 mm so far in August. The 281.8 mm in July set a record for the wettest month in Ottawa’s history. On July 1, 118 millimetres of rain was recorded at the Ottawa Airport, while the City of Ottawa said some areas in Ottawa’s west end received more than 150 millimetres of rain. Ottawa received 39.2 mm on July 9, 26.2 mm on Aug. 27, 37.6 mm on July 28, 21.9 mm on July 29, 36.1 mm on Aug. 2, 23.5 mm on Aug. 10. Looking ahead to the rest of the summer, Phillips says the weather models show it will “continue to be warmer and also wetter.” “It looks like a great fall, end of summer to fall,” Phillips said, adding the El Nino winter coming up could mean “more balminess.”
