Wednesday was the rainiest September 22 on record in Toronto, according to Environment Canada.
The weather station at Pearson Airport recorded 56 millimetres of rain during the 24-hour period from midnight to midnight on Wednesday, meteorologist Gerald Cheng told Daily Hive.
The rain system dropped a total of 64 millimetres of rain on Pearson, but some of it fell outside the 24-hour time frame.
The precipitation crushed the previous record of 41.9 millimetres of rain set on September 22 in 1938.
“This time, we were dealing with a big system that imported moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean,” Cheng said.
The huge weather system was overhead for quite some time — unlike many summer thunderstorms that tend to give a quick dose of rain before moving on.
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Most of southern Ontario was under a rainfall warning Wednesday, and some areas outside Toronto received even more rain than the city.
Middlesex County, which encompasses London, Ontario, declared a State of Emergency Thursday morning following 48 hours of heavy rainfall.
Many roads in the region flooded, although officials said all had reopened by Thursday.
Cheng also pointed to a volunteer rain metre in someone’s Aurora, Ontario backyard that recorded 130 millimetres of rain on Wednesday.