Science
From heatwaves to hailstorms: Environment Canada’s top 10 weather stories of the yearFrom hail to heatwaves, Environment and Climate Change Canada released its top 10 weather stories of 2024. From the north’s unusual heatwave to Alberta’s damaging hailstorm, the effects were noticeable — and costly.
From hail to heatwaves, floods to fires, Environment Canada selected the year’s top 10 weather stories
Anand Ram · CBC News
· Posted: Dec 10, 2024 1:33 PM EST | Last Updated: 8 hours ago
Onlookers take in the spectacle of flooded and abandoned vehicles on the Don Valley Parkway after a major rain squall caused the Don River to burst its banks on July 16. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)Bullets and buckets from the sky, a wildfire threatening a historic town and extreme heat records broken above the Arctic Circle.
These are just some of the top weather stories Environment and Climate Change Canada has included in its list this year, which saw seemingly every coast affected by some form of extreme or unusual weather.
Alberta hailstorm in August One of the most dramatic — and damaging — events this year was an end-of-summer thunderstorm that struck hard and fast. Residents in Calgary and surrounding areas shared photos and videos of shattered windshields and dented roofs.
WATCH | Calgary hit with hail:
An Alberta Emergency Alert was originally issued at 7:57 p.m. on Monday, warning of torrential rain and baseball-sized hail for parts of southern Alberta, including Calgary. Videos on social media show damage to cars and houses due to the hail.
Those few hours turned out to be the second costliest insured event in Canadian history, with $2.8 billion in losses, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. (The costliest was the 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta.)
The rear windshield of a car parked in northwest Calgary is pictured after being damaged by an August hailstorm. (Karina Zapata/CBC)Summer flooding in Ontario Heavy July downpours turned a major artery into the city of Toronto into a pool — twice in one week. The next month, nearby Mississauga saw flash flooding and rain that had fire crews rescuing dozens of people.
WATCH | How flooding turned the Don Valley Parkway turned into a waterway:
How flooding turned the Don Valley Parkway turned into a waterway
Stretches of the Don Valley Parkway remain closed in both directions following Tuesday’s flooding. As CBC’s Dale Manucdoc reports, multiple vehicles could be seen abandoned in the lanes, with water having risen up past their headlights in some cases.
The shock exposed infrastructure gaps, with experts saying that climate change’s unpredictability means cities can’t rely on past records to build future systems.
Flooded vehicles stranded in a dealership parking lot are pictured here on July 16. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)Jasper’s July wildfiresNestled in the heart of natural forest beauty, the people of Jasper, Alta., had very little notice in late July to get out of the way of fast-moving wildfires.
A worker walks in a devastated neighbourhood in west Jasper, Alta., on Aug. 19. Wildfire caused evacuations and widespread damage in the National Park and Jasper townsite. (Amber Bracken/The Canadian Press)By the time the smoke cleared, one-third of the town was destroyed. The national park saw more than 32,000 hectares burned — the worst in more than a century.
See how fast the wildfire tore through Jasper in this detailed breakdown by CBC Edmonton’s Nicholas Frew.
Atmospheric rivers in British Columbia The most recent on ECCC’s list were the atmospheric rivers that parked over British Columbia in September and October. The latter, so intense, it killed two motorists on Vancouver Island and an elementary school teacher in Coquitlam.
The mid-October event dumped as much as 300 millimeters of rain in some parts of B.C. over a couple of days.
Remnants of a staircase are one of few structures still standing after a landslide in Coquitlam, B.C., claimed a life. (Camille Vernet/Radio-Canada)The duality of June 19Two extremes hit two regions of Canada on the same day: June 19. The East baked — and set more than 100 new daily temperature records.
But in the West, Alberta set 13 records for low temperatures, with Hendrickson Creek (about 150 kilometres north of Jasper) recording a new daily minimum record of -2.7 C.
Scientists with Environment Canada say this summer see-saw is normal, but the record setting extremes were not.
Arctic heat waves Canada’s North is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, and this summer, people saw daily temperature records broken.
In Inuvik, N.W.T., more than 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, temperatures in early August were well above 30 C — with a peak of 34.8 C on Aug. 7, the highest temperature ever recorded there.
“With nearly constant daylight, nighttime temperatures barely dropped, hovering at 27 degrees at midnight,” said Jennifer Smith, National Warning Preparedness Meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, in a news briefing today.
Also on the Top 10 list:
Central Canada bears the brunt of the 2024 hurricane season Western Canada plunged into January deep freeze Wildfires and evacuations in western Labrador Cape Breton’s winter wallop With files from Inayat Singh
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anand Ram is a reporter and producer with CBC’s science and climate unit. He’s worked as a reporter covering technology, business and the environment and as a producer with The National.
