It's called the Texas gully washer.

The jaws of the sky open wide, dumping pailfuls of rain that wash out entire streets, swamp basements and turn a perfectly good hairdo into something akin to a drowned rat.

Usually Toronto gets just one of those swift summer deluges every two years.

So far this summer, the city has experienced five, and they are being blamed for flooded basements and have even been linked to the fiery destruction of an east-end apartment building's hydro vault.

"It just swamps you; it's like a monsoon," said Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips. "The sewer system can't handle it, there's flooding. It becomes a real stress on the infrastructure of this city."

The soaker summer in Toronto this year is pushing the city toward a record for the wettest June and July. As of July 21 - with more than a week left of rainy forecasts - 240 millimetres of rain were recorded at Pearson Airport during June and July, threatening the 1980 record of 271.5 mm.

Short, intense downbursts are mainly to blame, said Mr. Phillips. And they're prompting tales of woe across the city.

When the summer started, east Toronto homeowner Stewart Pellat had a carpeted basement with a bathroom, kitchenette and guestroom.

Within three weeks - after two heavy rainstorms - he had filed two insurance claims. Sewage seeped into the basement of his Minto Street home, gathering two feet deep and creating a layer of thick, black sludge. He was forced to tear out the carpet, rip out drywall and re-jig his pipes.

Residents of the short, dead-end street near Leslie and Queen Street East have long battled the city over aging sewage infrastructure that they say leaves them vulnerable to summer downbursts.

"We get it in our homes and nobody cares," Mr. Pellat said.

City officials admit the sewer systems weren't built to withstand rains of such magnitude.

"We cannot build sewer systems to handle these intense storm systems. We just can't afford to," said general manager of Toronto Water Lou Di Gironimo.

An overnight storm on July 8 forced the closing of Sunnyside Beach after sewage seeped into the system.

Like all motorists, Toronto Transit Commission above-ground operators are at the mercy of the elements, and heavy rainfall has prompted quick diversion of routes a number of times this summer, said spokesman Ben Ross.

Rain can also damage power lines and wreak havoc on electrical systems - a fact that looms over the investigation into an explosion in the underground hydro vault at an east Toronto apartment Sunday that has left nearly 1,000 residents temporarily homeless.

The investigation could take several weeks, and officials won't comment on possible causes before then, though early indications are that the transformer wasn't working at capacity or over-capacity.

The explosion Sunday dovetailed with back-to-back rainstorms July 19 and 20 that produced 79 millimetres of rain, compared with the average total July rainfall of 74 millimetres.

Underground transformers are "exponentially more expensive" to build and need to be airtight against the elements to avoid shorts and other problems, said Hugh Imhof of Spokane, Wash.-based energy company Avista Corp.

"That's why building underground is more expensive - you have to build more of an armoured system," he said.

Hard rains

Normally, Toronto receives a single torrential downpour every summer. In the past two months, there have been five super soakings, approaching the 1980 record for the wettest June and July.

FIVE GOOD SOAKINGS THIS SUMMER:

In millimetres

June 9: 27.6

June 28: 27.0

July 8: 29.2

July 19: 28.2

July 20: 51.2

Wettest June/July 271.5: June/July 1980

June/July 2008 with 9 days to go: June/July 2008

Normal average total 74.4; July avg.