Why has it been raining so much in Montreal?

It started with the floods and it feels like the rain just hasn't let up.

If clouds and rain have been hanging over most of your weekend gatherings, or you've been bringing an umbrella on your commutes to work, it's because recently, it's been rainier than usual.

"It was a very wet spring," says Environment Canada forecaster Denis Thibodeau, stating what most of us in the city have noticed.

In both May and June, Montreal had more rain than the average. In May, about124millimetres fell, compared to the 81-millimetre average, and in June, 135millimetres fell, above the average of 87.

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It's not that there have been huge downpours, Thibodeau said, but more so that showers have been more frequent, spread throughout the week.

Why, though, is another story.

"The answer is I don't know," he said with a chuckle.

The greyer skies and wetter days are something climate scientists will beanalyzingdown the road and may be able to point to specific systems that caused them, likeglobal warming, he explained.

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'Things that are normal become not normal'

While most may think it refers to drastic changes in temperatures,Thibodeausays climate changemanifests itself by "breaking up weather patterns."

"This is the kind of thing climate scientists have been talking about for decades," he says. "Things that are normal become not normal anymore."

But he says it's too early to say whether the increase in rain is directly linked to that phenomenon.

The extra cloudsmay have affected temperatures, too. The days'highest temperatures have been lower than usual and the lows have been higher.

Thibodeau says that's because during the day, clouds block the sun from warming the air and at night, they keepthe heat in.

"It's like throwing a blanketover and keeping the heat in or like covering your pool at night, where the water's going to stay warmer," he said.

The forecast for the rest of the summer came out June 30 and shows normal weather, with things eveningout, precipitation-wise, Thibodeausaid.

"Hopefully put the emphasis on the word hopefully we've turned a corner."

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