Outlook for first week of summer: rain

Toronto can look forward to a wet first week of summer, forecasters say.

The GTA saw rain, thunder and lightning overnight Tuesday and can expect more of the same for Wednesday, all the way through to the weekend.

Wednesday’s early morning storm began with a lightning show over city skies just before 12 a.m. and brought a thunderous downpour around 2 a.m.

The storm was more boom than bust – there were no reports of damage, as winds were not particularly strong at around 30 to 35 km/h, said Mark Seifert, Environment Canada meteorologist. Toronto Island Airport received just over 10 millimetres of rain.

That’s in sharp contrast to the damage the storm system caused elsewhere. In southwestern Ontario, wind gusts reached 90 km/h, downing trees and power lines in the Leamington area.

But the storm did cause a power outage that affected 1,100 homes and businesses in Toronto’s west end, according to Toronto Hydro.

The power went out at 3 a.m. and came back on at 5 a.m., spokeswoman Jennifer Link said. The outage was caused not by lightning but tree limbs leaning on hydro wires.

Seifert said the rest of Wednesday should be fairly quiet in the GTA, but there is a risk of thunderstorm again in the afternoon and into the evening. A heavier downpour is the main threat with even more rain than Tuesday night predicted, he said.

The rain is expected to continue until at least Saturday.

--Zoe McKnight, Staff Reporter, with files from The Canadian Press