This past year was quite a challenge in terms of devastation caused by the ever-increasing impacts of climate change.
In 2023, Canada was left with desolate, charred landscapes unlike anything seen before, significant drought stricken watersheds and powerful storms which caused destruction throughout the country.
Of the weather events which struck Canadian soil this year, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist David Phillips compiled a top 10 list which can be summed up below:
Wildfires
The wildfires that 2023 brought with it impacted nearly every region of Canada and broke records across the board.
“It began early, ended late, burned faster and was extremely active from British Columbia and the Territories to the Atlantic coast,” said Phillips.
“Fighting wildfires in Canada often occurs on one side of the country at a time; this year massive wildfires were everywhere at once and lasted many months.”
In total, 184,493 square kilometres of woodland was burnt to a crisp across Canada—this is the equivalent of 1.5 times the size of all the Maritime provinces combined.
May 2023 was the hottest on record in 76 years in British Columbia and this month saw the beginnings of the devastating Donnie Creek fire which wasn’t put out until late September. It was also the largest wildfire in BC’s history at over 5,800 square kilometres.
In BC, over 40,000 were under an evacuation order or alert through the thick of this crisis with as many as 400 wildfires burning at once.
Over 370 homes were partially or completely destroyed in the West Kelowna and Shuswap regions alone.
Smoke
A byproduct of the rampant wildfires across Canada and the United States, smoke caused a lot of trouble for Canadians with respiratory issues.
Over 730 wildfires burning from coast to coast to coast left the vast majority of the country impacted by poor air quality warnings.
Sometimes it was bad enough that the smoke could be easily smelled and tasted.
Hot earth summer
According to Environment Canada, it was the hottest summer on record, not only for Canada, but also the world.
It was definitely the hottest summer on earth since 1940, or even 1850 since periodic averaging began, according to the national weather and climate authority.
But they also said that it may have actually been the hottest summer across the globe since humans began appearing over 120,000 years ago.
“Canada contributed more than its share to the Earth’s record hot summer,” said Phillips.
It was the warmest summer in 76 years, dating back to the start of national record-keeping in 1948.”
Deluge in Nova Scotia
A fast moving deluge dropped record amounts of water on a hot and dry Nova Scotia back in May which left many areas in shambles.
“By the end of June, 214 mm of rain had fallen in Halifax, nearly [2.25] times the average monthly total. July was also wet with 187 mm—nearly double the normal,” said the national weather authority.
Families had to flee their homes, four people died—including two young children—and roads were replaced in large part by rivers as the rainfall overwhelmed nearly all infrastructure.
Wet and dry disparity
In Canada, the summer and fall months saw devastating rainfall in the eastern regions of the country while drought took over in the west.
“Across Western and Northwest Canada, a persistent large high-pressure area stationed over British Columbia and Alberta kept rains away and temperatures elevated by as much as 10 degrees above normal for much of the year,” said Phillips.
Meanwhile the eastern regions of the country were getting smashed with deluges and tropical storms breaking nearly all records for Maritime provinces’ precipitation records.
Hurricane Lee
In spring, forecasters were calling for a relatively mild year in terms of tropical storms hitting the east coast, but they quickly changed their tune.
By summer the same forecasters were calling for 21 storms large enough to earn themselves a name, and Hurricane Lee was the worst of the bunch.
“At one time, Lee’s size extended out to 145 km with hurricane-force winds and 500 km with tropical storm winds,” said Phillips.
“Few Maritimers would not feel the effects of Lee’s wrath no matter where it made landfall during the weekend.”
The system hammered Eastern Canada similarly to Hurricane Fiona which struck the same regions in 2022, but after many calculations, it was determined Hurricane Lee was not as bad as Fiona was.
Freezing rain for French Canadians
In early April, just before the Easter long weekend, an unexpected freezing rain struck Montreal with ferocity that made it dangerous to do much of anything.
“Persistent winds through the low-lying valleys of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence rivers kept surface temperatures hovering just below freezing for most of the day,” said Phillips.
“The bad mix led to several hours of freezing rain and rain with a few early season ‘thunder-snows.’”
“Hearing thunder and the ping of freezing ice balls bouncing off surfaces created a real buzz across eastern Ontario and southern Québec,” he continued.
Businesses were closed during this time as property and infrastructure were being damaged and it was generally unsafe to be outdoors.
All-in-all, the costs in damages from this weather system topped $335 million.
Cold days in a warm year
An unpredicted cold spell swept the nation just last year around New Year’s 2022.
This system brought along with it all kinds of dangerous conditions, including heavy rains, freezing rain, ice pellets and heavy snows.
Along with this instance of unexpected cold, several other times throughout the year, different regions of Canada were slapped with a cold that was unwelcome and short-lived through the warmer months of the year.
Flooding in Québec
Québec saw an unprecedented wet Juliet which caused loads of flooding and subsequent damages along with it.
The first heavy rain struck the province on July 1st and did not let up for long through the month.
“By the end of the month, many large municipalities in Québec had come through their wettest July on record,” said Phillips.
“For Montréal it was the wettest July measured at the Airport on record since 1941. In Québec City, it was a record in 150 years, and a similar situation in Sherbrooke.”
Property damage from the five significant July storms totalled over $330 million.
Canada Day Tornado in Alberta
In a humid, hot, rainy end to June and beginning of July, a tornado was looming over the prairies.
“On July 1, atmospheric conditions really started to boil up along the foothills of the Rockies,” read the list.
“Around noon, a severe thunderstorm near Sundrie intensified into a supercell. Shortly before 2 p.m., a tornado came twisting out of the supercell on farmland about 70 kilometres north of Calgary.”
Golf ball sized hail and winds of up to 275 km/h struck the region and left a vast debris field with downed power lines, trees left in shambles and wrecked buildings throughout.
This tornado was the most powerful tornado in Canada this year and is one of only three tornados to be rated as stronger than the “Black Friday” tornado to hit Edmonton 35 years ago.
