Summerside whacked by record June rainfall

Downpours in Summerside Tuesday blew away the city's record for the most rainfall on a June day.

Environment Canada is reporting 102.5 mm in the city. The previous record for June, set on June 13, 1968, was 57.9 mm.

The extreme rain event did not cover the whole of P.E.I. Charlottetown recorded just 17.1 mm. North Cape, in the far east of the province, was dampened by a mere 1.2 mm.

Tyne Valley, about a third of the way along the North Shore from Summerside to North Cape, saw 59 mm.

"That's just one of those things with those thunderstorms," said CBC meteorologist Tina Simpkin. "They do produce, locally, heavy amounts of rain."

Even the remnant of a thunderstorm tracking over an area can drop huge amounts of rain, she said.

Records for Summerside go back to 1929.

The city has seen rainier days in that time. The most ever recorded was on Aug. 13, 1948, when 111.8 mm of rain fell.

Matt Compton, who farms near Summerside growing a mix of crops including potatoes, strawberries and squash, welcomed the rain.

Most of his strawberry crop hasn't ripened yet so there is little damage there. Dry weather through the spring had his squash crop behind schedule.

"Our new potatoes will welcome the rain," Compton said in an email to CBC News.

"But we can't dig those for a couple days as the fields are complete muck."

He is hopeful that with the fields so dry before Tuesday, the soil will be able to absorb the water quickly, allowing him to get back to harvesting.