Another rainy weekend ahead for the Maritimes

While it rained off and on for eastern parts of the Maritimes this past weekend, the intensity of the rain increased late Sunday through Monday for eastern Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

This was particularly true for parts of Cape Breton, which had totals in excess of 100 mm for parts of the island as of Tuesday afternoon. Eastern areas of Prince Edward Island and mainland Nova Scotia also picked up some rain totals ranging 40 to 90 mm the weekend through Tuesday afternoon.

Rain totals reported the weekend through Tuesday from volunteers and personal weather station data at capebretonweather.ca.Another soggy weekend for parts of the region. We seem to have had a run of them in the Maritimes going back months now. Is that just our perception of the weather though or are there some statistics to back that up?

I went through some weather station data for weekends going back to the start of July. What I found was that at those sites spanning the Maritimes a measurable amount of rain was reported on the majority of weekend July through mid-October.

The intensity of the rain varied with some weekend just seeing lighter rain or showers producing a few millimetres. Many weekends though had more substantial rain totalling more than 20, 30, and even 40 mm.

Going back to the start of July, if you picked a weekend in the Maritimes, it likely had some rain on it.One of the rainiest weekends in general through that stretch was Sept. 16 and 17 when Lee went through as a post-tropical storm.

The driest two consecutive weekends we had in the Maritimes through that span seem to have been the weekends of Sept. 23-24 and Sept. 30-Oct. 1st.

A broad area of low pressure is expected to move north from the eastern US seaboard this weekend bringing another round of rainy weather to the Maritimes.Wednesday through Friday are forecast to be mainly dry. After that indications are for another wet weekend. A broad area of low pressure is forecast to develop off the coast of the eastern United States on Friday. That weather system then moves into the Maritime Saturday into Sunday bringing periods of rain. While early to be pinning down rain amounts the general range being indicated in long range guidance is 30 to 75 mm.

Looks like we’ll get to add another soggy weekend to the tally.