This Alberta spot just had one of its rainiest Mays ever

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People across Alberta have gotten used to some pretty wet and gloomy weather over the past few weeks but some areas were hit especially hard last month, with one spot landing one of its rainiest Mays ever.

People living in the province’s two biggest cities were no exception but precipitation for the month of May hovered around normal levels.

Alysa Pederson with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) tells Daily Hive both Edmonton and Calgary rainfall levels were “a hair above normal,” and saw 56.8 millimetres and 61.7 millimetres, respectively. Edmonton typically gets 46 millimetres, while Calgary sees around 56.8 millimetres this time of year.

Some areas around the province were hit with record rainfall rarely seen over almost 140 years.

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Northeastern Alberta was one spot hit particularly hard, with Fort McMurray getting 70 millimetres of rain in May. That’s an almost 200% increase past normal levels, which is 36 millimetres.

Lethbridge was slightly higher at 211% above normal levels.

Medicine Hat looked like the rainiest spot in Alberta last month, with rainfall numbers almost 300% above normal. It’s the city’s third wettest May on record with half of the rainfall for the month coming through in one day.

“That’s 139 years of data and the third wettest May on record is pretty significant,” says Pederson.

“We had a pretty big rain system move through southern Alberta on May 6 and 7, and so we had a one-day record of rainfall in Medicine Hat of 73.3 millimetres. That’s the most that’s ever fallen on a single day in the month of May.”

So far, June is shaping up to be a pretty extreme weather month as well, with tornados already spotted around Alberta. If you want to know what kind of weather to expect this summer, click here.