Flash snowfalls in Calgary. “Biblical-size” flooding in the Prairies. These are a few of the weather catastrophes on what senior meteorologist David Phillips calls Environment Canada’s “worst dressed” list for the year.
“You don’t want to make this list – this is misery, hardship and misfortune,” Mr. Phillips says of Environment Canada’s list of the top 10 weather stories of 2014, released today. He says the theme of this year’s list was low temperatures.
Mr. Phillips looked at stories that generated the most buzz and their economic costs when deciding the order.
Over the past 19 years, the list and its ranking order have sometimes sparked discontent from Canadians questioning why their weather events weren’t included. “People want a justification to their complaining and bitching of the weather,” Mr. Phillips said. “We sneer and complain about the weather, but we rally around it.”
1. Canada’s long, cold winter
“We are the second coldest country and the snowiest country in the world, but even for us it was too much,” Mr. Phillips said of the low temperatures throughout the year. “… People thought they were deserving of a warm summer given the kind of long winter we had. But people have to understand that nature doesn’t feel sorry for them.”
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2. Flooding on the Prairies
The summer’s “biblical-sized deluges of rain” flooded out at least six million acres in eastern Saskatchewan and Western Manitoba.
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3. Wildfires in the West
Heat on the West Coast sparked forest fires that led to “the third greatest loss of timber in 60 years.”
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4. A Christmas nightmare
The list includes a weather event from 2013, was the massive ice storm that struck Central and Eastern Canada, that was too late to make the cut for last year’s rankings. The icy weather caused an estimated $200-million in damages according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada with clean-up going well into the 2014, Mr. Phillips said.
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5. Hot on coasts, cool in middle
Westerners and Maritimers felt temperatures as many as two degrees above normal this summer, and in St. John’s, July was the hottest month on record. But Central Canada was less lucky, with few days above 30 degrees throughout the season.
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6. Hurricane Arthur
After hammering the U.S. East Coast, Hurricane Arthur – weakened to a tropical storm – left thousands without power when it hit the Maritimes in July.
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7. Hail in Alberta
Airdrie, Alta., was among the communities hit hardest when an August thunderstorm dropped tennis-ball-sized hail on parts of central Alberta.
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8. Stormy December
Stormy weather was battering Canada from both ends earlier this month, drenching the East Coast with rain and flooding communities in British Columbia.
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9. Angus tornado
The twister that hit Angus, Ont., in June ripped roofs off houses and sparked a state of emergency.
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10. Snowtember
“Snowtember” brought Calgarians a warm 25 degrees on a Sunday and a snow storm on a Monday. After three days, the city saw a total of 28 centimetres of snow.
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The also-rans
The full report includes stories that didn’t make the cut, such as the January and April Fool’s storms that ravaged Atlantic Canada, fierce winds in Western Canada and severely cold waters on the Great Lakes.
With reports from The Canadian Press and Globe staff