Canada. Highways under water, many hours without power. This will happen more and more often

Downpours swept across the Toronto metropolitan area Tuesday morning. Local media reported that about 100 litres of rain fell per square metre at Pearson International Airport, while the city centre saw 76 litres per square metre.

On Tuesday afternoon, the city issued a flood watch, warning people not to be near rivers and Lake Ontario. The Union Station subway station, one of Toronto's major transportation hubs, and the section of Highway 410 leading to the airport in the city of Missisauga, in the greater Toronto area, were flooded. Several cars were stranded on the road, and local firefighters helped the drivers.

The Don Valley Parkway (DVP), a major thoroughfare in Toronto's east end, was also closed. According to media reports, firefighters rescued 12 people in floods on the DVP, including one who was sheltering on the roof of a car. In Missisauga, 50 cars were flooded on one street. Emergency services checked them one by one to make sure no drivers were trapped inside.

At the peak of the outages, in the early afternoon, 167,000 customers were without power in Toronto; eight hours later, about 50,000 customers were still without power, said Toronto Hydro, the city's electricity supplier.

The media quoted meteorologists who described the weather situation on Tuesday as exceptional because it was not one storm with the downpour only a series of storms with downpours that passed over Toronto. The rainfall was very intense, up to 30 l/sq m in half an hour. The previous record was recorded in 2013 – then 126 l/sq m of rain fell in Toronto.

Experts have pointed out that the city is not adapted to heavy rains, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. In Toronto, many undeveloped areas and wetlands that previously absorbed excess water have disappeared. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said at a news conference Tuesday that the city expects the number of heavy rains to double over the next 15 years.