Rain, rain, go away: Monday downpours turn Yellowknife's Franklin Avenue into a swamp

A record-breaking rainfall may have been good for Yellowknife gardeners, but it forced one of Yellowknife's main roads to close for most of the afternoon.

The Yellowknife airport reported 15 millimetres of rain by noon on Monday. That's nearly half the rainfall expected for the city for the entire month of June and broke a rainfall record for June 11. 

• Trash bags over Yellowknife stop signs lead to confusion, memes​
• It's going to be a very busy summer of construction for Yellowknife

The rain created deep potholes in parts of Franklin Avenue that had previously been dug up for construction.

The city closed the northbound (heading toward downtown) lanes of Franklin between Old Airport Road and Forrest Drive shortly after 1:30 p.m. so crews could repair the damage.

A heavy downpour in June is not unheard of in Yellowknife, but it is unusual, explained CBC North meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler.

"It's not abnormal, it's just that it doesn't happen very often," she said. "In 2016, we had 19 millimetres of rain on one day in June. It has happened before, but it's not what we usually see."

The rain is expected to taper off a bit throughout the day Monday, but there is more rain in the forecast. Another five millimetres of rain is expected on Tuesday, with a chance of thunderstorms, Brauweiler said.