More rain fell at Pearson Airport in Mississauga than anywhere else in southern Ontario

More rain fell at Pearson Airport in Mississauga than anywhere else in southern Ontario during torrential downpours early this week that led to widespread flooding and power outages across the GTA and beyond on Tuesday.

In a post to social media, Pearson officials noted that between Monday and Tuesday, the airport’s Environment and Climate Change Canada weather station recorded 122.9 mm of rain at Canada’s biggest and busiest airport.

“This was just ahead of Toronto City Centre, which saw 121.3 mm, and Billy Bishop Airport (Toronto Island), which saw 113.5 mm,” airport officials said in a post to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday morning.

Environment and Climate Change Canada officials noted other areas of southern Ontario that also received significant amounts of rainfall on Monday and Tuesday:

• Ilderton (north of London): 114 mm
• London: 104 mm
• Lynden (west of Hamilton): 100.8 mm
• Norwich (southwest of Brantford): 91.2 mm
• Sarnia: 84.9 mm
• Kitchener: 82.3 mm

In a three-and-a-half-hour period alone on Tuesday, Pearson saw 97.41 mm of rain — including 26 mm in one 10-minute span.

Tuesday’s downpour marked the fifth-wettest day ever recorded at Pearson, according to the airport, and the rainiest since 2013, when floods also hit Mississauga and the GTA.

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It was also the wettest July 16 ever, smashing the previous mark of 25.9 mm on July 16, 1941, according to Pearson officials.

The torrential rain led to flooding in many parts of Mississauga as sections of highways, main and residential roads, homes, businesses, parks and other locations — including a long-term care home in the city’s east end — were overcome by rising waters.

Numerous roads and more than a dozen parks in Mississauga were closed as of Tuesday afternoon to the public as a result of the rare storms.

Pearson officials said other than the flooding of a section of Convair Drive that runs along the airport’s southern border next to Highway 401, no other areas of the airport were flooded and operations continued mostly on schedule.

The section of Convair Drive is expected to remain closed for another day or so.

Pearson officials said the airport is equipped to handle large downpours of rain that fall in a short period of time.

The Carlingview Stormwater Facility, Moores Creek Facility, Aeroquay Facility and Etobicoke Creek Facility manage the flow of stormwater, they said.

“These facilities can hold a combined 65 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water in tanks above and below ground, as well as in natural ponds,” airport officials said in a social media post.