This was one for the record books. It was the Sydney 2016 Thanksgiving flood all over again, except perhaps a bit worse, and for Ingonish instead. Ingonish Beach recorded 206.4 mm of rain in just 12 hours. The daily total for November 23rd was 232.8 mm, smashing the previous daily record of 143.8 mm on 12 August 1970. Records began in 1950. The mesonet did an excellent job at capturing huge variability of rain totals in Victoria County. The "atmospheric river" of intense rainfall flowed north from the tropics like a snake. It then fed into an existing area of orographic uplift rainfall (mountain enhanced rainfall) on eastern shoulder of the Cape Breton Highland plateau, just west of Ingonish.
The changes in water level at the Environment Canada stream gauge (above) on the Middle River from 01 January to Nov.25/21 certainly exhibited a major flow event, well surpassing even spring flows. The result was the erosion of the Cabot Trail bridge over the Middle River (below).
Sharon Morrow also got a great shot (below) of the high flows at the gauging station on Tuesday.
The Mesonet certainly did a great job helping us understand this storm – nice job!
Fred Baechler
Hydrogeologist
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