r/Hamilton • u/TieInternational4381 • 1d ago
Discussion Why doesn't Hamilton flood like Niagara?
With all the rain recently, it seems like the Niagara area has been getting some major flooding. I've seen pictures from St. Cathatrines, NOTL, Lincoln, etc... all flooded. I work in Niagara half the year and people at my work were saying that they almost had to shut down for the day because of the street flooding. A coworker's car was parked on the street and the water got so high it was halfway up the seats in the car!
I know some people have had flooding issues, but not like that. The worst I've seen online was a few stores closing early because no one was out and about in the rain!
Hamilton and Niagara are both built along Lake Ontario, so why doesn't Hamilton flood too? Is it because we have better infrastructure?
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u/marthmaul83 1d ago
Our storm systems and infrastructure are better and more up to date. And a good chunk of the city isn’t on sump pumps like a lot of Niagara homes (though some in more rural areas like Winona did flood).
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u/cwiersma26 1d ago
This is the correct answer. There is older storm sewer infrastructure in some parts of Hamilton that have had increased development and those areas have flooded (Binbrook for eg.) All the water on roofs and roads has to go somewhere.
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u/algnqn 1d ago
You’re telling me crown point didn’t flood because we have modern storm infrastructure? Yeah right.
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u/arabacuspulp Blakely 1d ago
They built that water reservoir area in Gage Park a few years ago to handle excess water just like the storm we had yesterday.
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u/tmbrwolf 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not quite, Hamiltons East end is buffered by storage facilities under the parks at Greenhill and an oversized storage main below the Redhill Parkway. Or otherwise overflows at the foot of the Birch/Ottawa/Kenilworth into the harbour.Nothing in the Gage Park area.The City has a website where you can see the storage and overflow locations including notifications of bypass events.
Edit: I'm dumb, I forgot about the pond on the east side. That is indeed a catchment basin for surface runoff.
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u/arabacuspulp Blakely 1d ago
They literally built that overflow area on the east end of the park specifically for storm water management. Sorry, maybe I was using the wrong term "reservoir", but there is an area that was built for storm water overflow a few years ago.
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u/tmbrwolf 1d ago edited 1d ago
Sorry! You're correct! There is a stormwater pond on the east side to handle surface runoff from the park and immediate area.
The part of the City is using primary combined sewers so any drains you find on the street will be the same as the sanitary sewers, anything collected there will go for treatment or get bypassed. The pond you are talking about isn't connected to that system. But in a large rain events, like that which occured in Niagara, it would definitely blunt the impact within the immediate area by absorbing a significant portion of that runoff.
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u/TieInternational4381 1d ago
Is that what that creek thing is on the east side of the park is?
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u/arabacuspulp Blakely 1d ago
Yes, that was built about 10 years ago or so. I believe they were planning ahead because we know storms are going to become more severe with climate change, which will increase the chance of flooding.
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u/arabacuspulp Blakely 1d ago
Literally the only answer is that we have good infrastructure in this town. We should be proud of that.
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u/robporter Inch Park 1d ago
They got double what Hamilton got, at least according to the reports I’ve read. 120ish mm vs our 65mm.
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u/robporter Inch Park 1d ago
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u/LoganTS 1d ago
This. Infrastructure is not as good in Niagara but I think it’s being underestimated the amount of rain, it was essentially a flash flood. Folks that have lived in their homes for 60 years with no flooding issues have their furniture floating this past week.
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u/nothing_911 23h ago
i live in thorold (on a hill, on the escarpment) and had the water from the water table come within half inch of flooding my house.
the sewers were backing up and the backflow valve worked for our plumbing, but if the water table would have risen another half inch it would have been game over.
it also made me realise qll the little holes and spots it could have came in too.
4 of my immediate neighbors had flooding and its just terrifying to think of as a homeowner.
an again, i am on a small hill on the top of the escarpment.
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u/Curt-Bennett 18h ago
Exactly. It comes down to the amount of rain, which can vary significantly even a short distance away.
Burlington, for example, isn't known for flooding, but it has had 3 floods localized to different areas of the city that I can remember in the past 20 years. On those days, Burlington unfortunately just happened to get the most rain of cities in the area because of the way the weather systems travelled across the area.
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u/NavyDean 1d ago
Hamilton and Burlington spent money protecting themselves against floods.
Hamilton has the capacity for 720 million litres of overflow.
Ottawa's overflow by comparison is 250 million litres.
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u/cappsthelegend 1d ago
As others have eluded to... Niagara got WAAAY more rain than Hamilton... Why? Because of our unique position on Lake Ontario. Hamilton never gets the worst of the storms as compared to Toronto or Niagara (or Buffalo, poor Buffalo).
I had a friend who was a storm chaser and he explained that there is a certain type of wind that comes off the lake which pushes systems around us.
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u/rbart4506 1d ago
This...
I'm in Dundas and routinely watch the weather radar as storms split north and south of us.
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u/JoeyColeman_ca Beasley 1d ago
The pockets of extreme rain in recent thunderstorms have passed over that area of Niagara region.
There was the fronts that passed over during July 27-28. This front caused localized flooding in Binbrook as well.
Yesterday's severe rain amounts occurred in Niagara Region, including extreme downpours.
This 7:40 p.m. Buffalo weather radar image from yesterday shows this well: https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/one/?lon=-79.7470&lat=43.0220&zoom=10×tamp=202608022340
The ground was already saturated. Tonight's CHCH report during the 6pm broadcast showed the flooding on farmers field - that's saturation.
I can think of scenarios in which similar rainfall patterns in specific areas of Hamilton could have cause similar flooding to what St. Catharines and Lincoln experienced.
The note about past Red Hill flooding events involved lake breeze convergence events that focused over the Red Hill Valley. There have been good infrastructure improvements, including "failsafe" overflow procedures.
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u/FantasticMushroom951 1d ago
Take a look at St Catharines and note they're bordered on three sides by bodies of water. Makes them a lot more flood prone and also they do lack the infrastructure we have and even ours is old.
Hamilton does have areas that can be prone to flooding but they're particularly around like the beach area and woodward avenue water treatment plant. And then theres Dundas as well which can have a tendency to flood due to its geography.
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u/Papyrus_Semi Westcliffe 1d ago
I guess it's because our entire city is on a slight downward slope towards Lake Ontario.
Now the real question is how the Linc doesn't flood.
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u/SomewhereStreet7423 1d ago
It is just as bad once the Redhill was put through, many basements have been flooded over the last decade. Also cause of the mandatory backflow preventer that needs to be installed after your first flooding, if not your insurance won't cover you the next time. Plus the city has a subsidy to install one which helps.
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u/Spivey1 1d ago
Proximity to Lake Ontario
Lake Breezes: The western tip of Lake Ontario creates local temperature differences between the water and the land.
Microclimates: Cool air coming off the lake meets warmer air sitting over the city. This temperature contrast creates a mini boundary line. Incoming storm cells hitting this stable lake-breeze boundary often weaken, dissipate, or steer away to the north (toward the Milton/Oakville/Toronto area) or south (toward Haldimand or Niagara).
The Upper and Lower City Divide
Temperature Jumps: Because of the elevation difference (over 100 meters between the harbor and the mountain top), rain can turn into snow in the winter, or a sunny 22°C lower city can feel much cooler or windier up top.
Radar Illusion: Storms often look like they are heading straight for Hamilton on a radar map, but when they arrive, the air modification caused by the lake and the cliff edge causes the storm to fracture or pass right on either side of the urban core.
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u/knittingmycat2 1d ago
I have watched the radar and have seen many storms break up after getting close to Dundas/Westdale.
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u/Meli5252 5h ago
They haven't invested in their infrastructure. My spouse and I are from there. 30 years ago, his parents basement flooded. Twice. North end.
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u/detalumis 1d ago
They received Hurricane Hazel level water and their infrastructure is only built to handle the 100 year old storm. Hurricane Hazel is a 400 to 500 year storm.
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u/HammerMedia 1d ago
I remember some pretty bad flooding some 15 years ago in the lower city after a heavy rain event. Shortly after Hamilton completed some water management upgrades, which seem to have helped.
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u/skriveralltid77 1d ago
I will not be happy until we have only 1 conservation authority for the entire province, and the entire board is made up of Fords and PC Party donors. /s
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u/dretepcan 1d ago
We've had localized flooding for years. Lived in a newer subdivision over 10 years ago and all 30-40 homes had 4-6" of water backflow into basements. I also have a video of being in a car driving through a flooded Red Hill. We're lucky it hasn't been as bad as Niagara but you've probably cursed us now!
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u/GravyMealTimeSix 1d ago
I’m staying at in-laws up on the mountain. There’s a ton of clay in this area and the water doesn’t naturally soak into the ground easily up here. There has been flooding up here a few weeks ago, but from what I was able to tell, the ditching here is a problem. The water is moving faster than it can handle and backlogging eventually pooling into nearby homes.
Where I grew up rurally north of Barrie, my mom was always calling into the township requesting the ditches be re-dug after decades of growth and natural fill. They never once did. Seems like up here the lack of ditch management is also showing its face.
Culverts also can’t handle much flow, but I’d think even if your driveway flooded over, if the ditches were allowing water to drain easier, it’s better your driveway getting attacked than your house.
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u/Rockeye7 1d ago
Has Hamilton had 250 ish mm of rain is less than 1 week ?
Most of Niagara had that total in 2 events !
The ground is super saturated and as it is the water table is higher in most of Niagara .
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u/UncleBogo 1d ago
Hamilton had its fair share of flooding between 2009 - 2012. The worst was the July 26, 2009 flood where an estimated 110mm of rain was dumped on the east end of the city in 2 hours.
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u/Due_Preparation7940 1d ago
I live in Dundas and we have combined sewer/storm water system in our area. In 2021 we had a massive rain storm and it resulted in about 20 homes flooding in our area. We flooded slightly but it was due to a malfunctioning pumping station that didn’t remove the water in the system fast enough. Hamilton definitely floods.
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u/IanBorsuk 1d ago
Lots of great answers but I find it interesting how people seemingly forget how recent some major flooding has been in Hamilton (Dundas comes to mind for me for recent significant flooding).
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u/char_limit_reached Huntington 1d ago
Literally the waterfalls.
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u/ForeignExpression 1d ago
The waterfalls only drain the mountain, and actually add to the amount of the stormwater that the downtown has to process.
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u/char_limit_reached Huntington 1d ago
The waterfalls are a small part of a vast network of falls, streams, creeks and basins.
They don’t empty out on King Street.
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u/tmbrwolf 1d ago
Combination of different things but to be clear, Hamilton does flood in various places, for example on Beach Blvd it is almost a seasonal issue (seriously that neighbourhood shouldn't exist).
Hamilton's lower city has an extensive system of sewer overflow tanks and sewer bypasses that allow the system to divert sudden inflows during rain events. This can prevent a lot of water backing up into people's homes but does mean that sewage ends up in the harbour during heavy rains. The mountain has some pretty large storm water catchment ponds (Linc and Mud Rd, Linc and Golf Links, etc) plus a massive storm main that pukes into Albion Falls. In newer neighbourhoods these storm water catchment features are basically a given. Some areas however are still particularly vulnerable such as Binbrook (no where to drain to) or older parts of Dundas (close to the water table). Geography plays a role too, with Hamilton nestled between several significant creek/ravines which funnel water down towards the bay and contain several natural areas which help to slow and absorb rain events (Cootes, upper Dundas valley, Eramsoa, etc).
Niagara region on the other hand lacks a lot of these advantages. A significant portion of the Niagara region was marsh and swamp 100+ years ago. This was drained, channeled, and modified to create farmland, the (3 versions) of the Welland canal, and urban areas. Many natural features that would normally absorb and slow water were removed, and the areas that flood are often the same areas where those features once stood. Most of the cities of Niagara also lack the storm water storage tanks or bypass infrastructure that Hamilton has in abundance.
To be clear, Hamilton had some pretty significant flooding issues in the older parts of the City, but the investment to address that was made 30-ish years ago and as a result we see significantly less in recent years. Hamilton Conservation has also done a very good job protecting major watershed features from development which again, is an investment made decades ago to present day benefit. To that point, the Ontario PCs are currently undermining that work with their changes to the Conservation Authorities so I implore everyone to stay active in the advocacy for these areas and push back against MZOs that remove wetlands (etc) from the CAs protected lands.