Calgary hail tops list of Canada's most extreme weather events
It was another year of recordbreaking disasters and crazy, dangerous weather from coast to coast, says Environment Canada's senior climatologist.
A vicious hailstorm in Calgary wrote off more cars than Albertans normally buy in an entire year. Heat in Ontario quadrupled Toronto's normal number of hot, stuffy nights.
The East Coast experienced eight hurricanes compared with the normal two or three. A chokehold of wildfire smoke gave southern British Columbia some of the dirtiest air in the world.
A flood washed residents of Fort Mcmurray from their homes.
“It was an expensive year. It was an extreme year,” said Dave Phillips. “There were no shockers.”
Compiling the annual list of Top 10 Canadian weather events since 1996 hasn't left Phillips blase. It's just that, after 24 straight years of normal or above-normal temperatures, this is what Canada can now expect.
“Scientists have seen this very clear link between climate change and weather extremes,” said Phil
lips. “There's no denying it any more.”
The year 2020, he said, was remarkable for the impact weather and climatic events happening outside Canada had inside its borders.
Waters in the Atlantic, far off Canadian shores, were up to three degrees warmer than average.
“Conditions outside of Canada
made for a more active hurricane season,” Phillips said.
Smoke from vast wildfires in the U.S. Pacific Northwest drifted into southern B.C. and as far as the eastern slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains.
“What 2020 showed, through smoky skies in British Columbia, frequent hurricanes in the East, and vanishing ice in the North, is that climate change occurring elsewhere outside of Canada is also having an increasingly greater impact on the health and well-being of Canadians at home,” Phillips said.
Weather events cost Canadians $2.5 billion overall this year — and that's just insured losses.
Phillips's top weather story occurred June 13 when golf-ballsized hail pounded Calgary.
Driven by 70-km/ h winds, the icy missiles shattered windows, downed trees and battered 32,000 cars. The flood that followed swamped streets, led to blackouts in more than 10,000 homes and cost about $1.3 billion in insurance claims.
B.C.'S smoky September took the next spot. In third, a cold spring followed by rapid warmth and rain caused ice jams that raised water levels on rivers in the Fort Mcmurray area between 41/2 and six metres in a matter of hours. The ice slabs were so big explosives couldn't remove them and 13,000 residents had to leave their homes for more than a week.