Amelia Bellamy-Royds 

Hey Edmonton... if you haven't double-checked that rainfall warning since yesterday, it's been updated to predict weekend totals of 75 to 150 mm (the previous warning was for 50-90mm total).

Still expecting the heaviest rain to fall tonight (Saturday night/Sunday morning).

For reference, via @yegwxnerdery, our June monthly average is 78mm, but we'd already passed that before this storm (thanks in part to the big storm May 31-June 1). If we receive the higher end of the new predictions for the weekend, it will be a record rainy June. Even at the lower end of the predictions, it'll be the wettest month in 40 years.

(ALT for quoted thread: screenshots of the linked interactive charts, displaying the statistics described in the post texts.)
https://mstdn.ca/@yegwxnerdery/116779235876975432

#YEGwx

Jun 20 at 10:49pmWeb
Show threadAmelia Bellamy-Royds 1d ago

Well, those scary weather warnings are still in effect for tonight, but for this evening the rain has decided to circle around the city.

I was sitting at the piano, trying to figure out the opening riff to "I Can't Stand the Rain" & noticed it was actually a pleasantly bright daylight outside. Decided I could squeeze in a quick grocery run today after all (with a splurge on a bus fare to get there & back a little faster).

When I was at the Rooster Kitchen open stage on Thursday, host Barry Westerlund was half-heartedly urging folks to come out to his set at The Works festival (outdoor) stage in Churchill Square tonight, while also suggesting they bring a boat, life jacket, and maybe wet suit if they do. But he must have spun some wizardry because he had wonderful weather for his set. (Whether anyone was there to hear it, I don't know...)

There still, however, might be a wall of water arriving for the Tsunami Brothers who are playing now & until 10pm.

#YEGwx #YEGmusic

Show threadAmelia Bellamy-Royds 17h ago

We're apparently now at more than 100mm rainfall for the weekend, with another couple centimetres expected tonight.

FYI to #YEG folks: Most of the Edmonton area is now under alert asking people to avoid sending excess water down the drain because it might come back up in someone's basement. Beaumont & St Albert seem to be most urgent about it (I guess they have shared sewer / stormwater systems?). And roads are closed due to flooding in some rural areas

I didn't get a phone alert, but all the advisory alerts for #Alberta folks are available here:
https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-emergency-alert.aspx

#YEGwx

Alberta Emergency Alert

Find active alerts, archived alerts, and details about the alerting system.

Show threadAmelia Bellamy-Royds 4h ago

Two-day totals for the area ranged from a mere 70mm at the airport (south of the city) to 123mm in Stony Plain (west of Edmonton), with 93mm downtown.

That puts the official Edmonton total at the rainiest June in over a century (once you factor in that a tie with 1965 will have been broken by the rain that's continued to fall since midnight).

References for ya nerds:

#YEGwx

Show threadAmelia Bellamy-Royds 24s ago

🌞 It's sunny! 🌞

(Still cool, but that near-solstice sun is doing its best to change that!)

#YEGgarden #garden

Show threadkeithzg16h ago
@AmeliasBrain If we get such backups here though I'm certainly going to be badmouthing the local dry ponds! Great idea in the abstract, especially here where we used to be a lake and probably shouldn't have traditionally ignored mother nature so much, but my faith in EPCOR and Stantec is such that I kinda just assume they failed to account for something and it won't really work when push comes to shove.

Certainly no water backing up yet at my place, but it *was* coming into the basement through the east wall a few days ago and again last night! Mops, a shop vac, lots of rags, and then me hanging up a tarp to redirect some water overflowing on the front eavestroughs followed by Marcel late last night unclogging the downspouts of a few seeds, seems to have it nice and dry all of today. Perhaps I'm speaking too soon, but phew, could've been worse!

#yegwx
Show threadAmelia Bellamy-Royds 5h ago

@keithzg 😬 Glad you've got a temporary shield, but that is indeed a lot of water. I wonder if either of my downstairs neighbours has had water coming in, too. We certainly have more than a few large cracks in the outside of the foundation, but we don't get eavestrough overflow because of the design of the flat roof (it has a ridge around the edge & a central drain, so if it gets backed up it turns into a wading pool & any leaks are noticed at my ceiling level).

I have had a trickle coming in through the top of a window frame from some seam in the waterproofing that roof edge, but I was able to handle that with a small container & an old towel.

And yeah, as far as actual sewer backups, I'd expect that to be more of an issue in lower-lying neighbourhoods. I hope. I certainly don't trust the plumbing in this old building to be much of a defence against it!

Show threadPaul Turnbull 🇨🇦8h ago
@AmeliasBrain I didn’t get an alert but then I checked I had alerts for the app turned off. 😬
Show threadAmelia Bellamy-Royds 5h ago

@Chigaze I don't have any special app, and I guess the "advisory" notices aren't pushed out on the built-in phone emergency system. I get weather alerts from my weather apps, but hadn't thought about other alerts that go out through a separate system.

Oh well, I can just rely on Fedi to tell me. I saw about 5 different screenshots of the alert on here after I posted my update. And I did my laundry before any of these requests came out, I swear!

Show threadPaul Turnbull 🇨🇦5h ago
@AmeliasBrain I would think only the critical life threatening alerts would go onto the phone emergency system. The current water use ones are all advisory.
Show threadEllenIn Edmonton4h ago
@AmeliasBrain @Chigaze
I realized that I'm different from most of the people I know in IRL because Mastodon is my primary news source. When there's something that I truly need to know, like the water use advisories, I generally see it multiple times in my feed.
Show threadAmelia Bellamy-Royds 4h ago
@EllenInEdmonton @Chigaze It certainly helps that I have made a conscientious effort to prioritize local connections (& hashtags) in my feed here. But it also helps that Mastodon allows you to curate your feed without an algorithm biased to what is trending in the US or internationally.
Show threadEllenIn Edmonton1h ago
@AmeliasBrain @Chigaze
Yes, and I tend to time-limited mute the folks that I usually follow when there is something they're posting a lot about that doesn't interest me, or is irrelevant. Sadly, when I'm on a handheld device, my app doesn't let me do that. I need to unmute a few people.
Show threadEllenIn Edmonton4h ago
@Chigaze @AmeliasBrain
And I was thinking that it would be a good day to do laundry, while the rain keeps falling. Not yet, apparently.