Toronto weather record broken by wild summer of thunderstorms

If you felt like Toronto saw an unusually high number of thunderstorms this summer, you’re right.

In fact, the city surpassed its record-high for summer days with thunderstorms this year, recording 21 days where the skies lit up with lightning through the season.

This year marks the first time that over 20 thunderstorm days were recorded during any summer at Toronto Pearson Airport in the 68 years since record-keeping began.

🥇For the 1st time in recorded history, #Toronto-Pearson had more than 20 thunderstorm days during a summer (summer 2021). #OnStorm #TOWx pic.twitter.com/vT6AqGCEv6

— Toronto Weather Records🌤 (@YYZ_Weather) September 27, 2021

The latest record overtook the previous title-holder of summer 1986, when the city recorded 19 thunderstorm days. Toronto fell just short of tying this record in 2019, with 18 days of thunder and lightning.

To better grasp just how much high-voltage weather Toronto experienced over the summer, the median average from 1991 to 2020 was just 11 thunderstorm days.

The record-low was in 1972 when just four thunderstorm days were recorded all summer.

Environment Canada issued severe thunderstorm warnings regularly throughout the last few months, and the extreme weather offered up some truly magnificent views of lightning strikes around the city.

It sure seemed like the city was getting more than the average amount of thunderstorms this summer, but 20 days is quite a bit.

Summer lasts for just 92 days, meaning we spent almost 22 per cent of the season under thunderstorm warnings, versus the mean average of just below 12 per cent.