{"id":804650,"date":"2026-07-16T01:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804650\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T01:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:42:08","slug":"alberta-drenched-by-record-setting-rain-after-summers-of-wildfire-smoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804650\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta drenched by record-setting rain after summers of wildfire smoke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Streets are flooded in a neighbourhood after an early morning storm in Edmonton on Wednesday. A meteorologist with Environment Canada said Alberta\u2019s capital city saw 264 millimetres of rain in June, smashing the record of 216 millimetres set in 1914.Ivan Romanchak\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Summertime in Alberta usually consists of wildfire smoke, but this year has been different.<\/p>\n

Several parts of the province have been hit by storms. Edmonton was hammered by record-breaking rain in June and is on its way to doing it again this month, says Environment Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlberta was actually on a kind of a trend of getting drier each year until this year,\u201d said Dan Fulton, a meteorologist with the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year is kind of an outlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Alberta\u2019s capital city saw 264 millimetres of rain in June, smashing the record of 216 millimetres set in 1914.<\/p>\n

Fulton said about 360 millimetres of rain has fallen in June and July so far, and the city is set to break a summer record of 417 millimetres from 1953.<\/p>\n

Rivers in southern Alberta reach peak after days of heavy rain, but no major damage reported<\/a><\/p>\n

About 25 tornadoes have also been recorded across the province this year. Alberta and Saskatchewan usually see 16 tornadoes combined each year, Fulton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like the American Midwest. They get crazy tornadoes and weather, and it\u2019s as though that has shifted north into the Canadian Prairies this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last few weeks, rain in Edmonton has flooded streets, downed power lines and damaged recreation facilities.<\/p>\n

The city said several parts of the Yellowhead Trail freeway were closed for flooding after an early Wednesday storm.<\/p>\n

Edmonton\u2019s science centre also closed its doors, likely until November, after rain flooded the building last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a planning estimate, not a confirmed reopening date, and we continue to explore opportunities for a safe partial reopening earlier in the fall,\u201d Telus World of Science said on its website.<\/p>\n

Angel Ryder said she bought rubber boots for the first time this year after she was driving on an Edmonton street that was flooded by a downpour.<\/p>\n

She had to abandon her car.<\/p>\n

The water was almost up to her knees, she said, and she was carrying her mother\u2019s dog. \u201cShe was quite scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryder said she\u2019s used to breathing wildfire smoke this time of year, not walking through flood waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some doozies of storms, but the flooding isn\u2019t to the extent that it\u2019s been this year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s good for the trees; it\u2019s definitely great for the forests, but it\u2019s not so good for us. It\u2019s causing havoc in the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flooding prompts evacuations in Alberta\u2019s Kananaskis Country provincial park<\/a><\/p>\n

Ivan Romanchak said his Edmonton basement and dozens of homes on his street were flooded on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The back alley was like a shallow river.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water was all the way up to probably like your waistline,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rob de Pruis, national director of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said Albertans have submitted more claims for flooding and hail damage this year than for wildfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing this year so far is there hasn\u2019t been a lot of wildfire activity that\u2019s impacted communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been thousands of insurance claims that have been presented in Alberta because of severe weather, from water damage like flooding to hail damage to wind damage as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early June storm has resulted in about $80 million worth of claims from Edmonton, he said. Estimates for other weather events are still coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlood seems to be the most severe weather event that we are experiencing this year so far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Streets are flooded in a neighbourhood after an early morning storm in Edmonton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-804650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}