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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

Lindsay Shirreff shovels the shared driveway and sidewalk of her Welland Avenue home in Toronto on Dec. 11, 2014. (Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail)

“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

An aerial view of the flooding is shown in the Bird's Point area of Round Lake in Saskatchewan on July 6, 2014. (Handout/The Canadian Press)

The summer’s “biblical-sized deluges of rain” flooded out at least six million acres in eastern Saskatchewan and Western Manitoba.

Flooding leads to state of emergency in southern Prairies

3. Wildfires in the West

Firefighters tackle a flare up at the Smith Creek fire located on a hillside in West Kelowna, B.C., on July, 19, 2014. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

Heat on the West Coast sparked forest fires that led to “the third greatest loss of timber in 60 years.”

Hot, dry weather helps wildfires flourish in northern B.C.

4. A Christmas nightmare

Karun Anandadevan operates a snowblower after a storm that left around 18 cm of snow in Toronto on Dec. 15, 2013. (Mark Blinch for The Globe and Mail)

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

Kyle Piercy, 14, and his brother Jaron, 16, dive off a driftwood log repurposed as a diving board on their camping platform they built of off Miracle Beach on Vancouver Island on June 25, 2014. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)

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.

Natural gas prices hit by cool summer

6. Hurricane Arthur

A large uprooted tree rests against a house in Oakland, N.S., on July 5, 2014. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

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.

Nova Scotia to probe power utility’s “unacceptable” storm response

7. Hail in Alberta

Jay Schultz looks at a stalk of wheat damaged by a hailstorm on his farm near Standard, Alta., on Aug. 23, 2014. (Todd Korol for The Globe and Mail)

Airdrie, Alta., was among the communities hit hardest when an August thunderstorm dropped tennis-ball-sized hail on parts of central Alberta.

Blackouts, floods, storms and more: Calgary bears plagues with bravado

8. Stormy December

A man skis across the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge in Fredericton on Dec. 18, 2014. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press)

Stormy weather was battering Canada from both ends earlier this month, drenching the East Coast with rain and flooding communities in British Columbia.

Snow hits Ontario on week of bad weather from coast to coast

9. Angus tornado

An investigator assesses the damage to homes and property on June 18, 2014, a day after a tornado touched down in Angus, Ont. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

The twister that hit Angus, Ont., in June ripped roofs off houses and sparked a state of emergency.

Ontario town sees “significant damage” from tornado

10. Snowtember

An icicle forms on a sunflower as snow continues to fall in Cremona, Alta., on Sept. 9, 2014. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

“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.

In pictures: Old Man Winter pays Calgary an early visit

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