Weather events from across Canada, throughout the year, made Environment Canada’s Top 10 Weather Stories list.
Manitoba even made the list with the most powerful Tornado of the year.
Environment Canada chose the top 10 from a list of 100 significant weather happenings across the country.
10. August Long-Weekend Storms
Ontario was drenched with some areas seeing over 100mm of rain and 4 tornadoes touching down. Meanwhile, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan were rocked with hail storms and strong winds resulting in 4,000 insurance claims totalling $55 million in property losses.
9. Fall Gives Canada’s West And East Polar Opposites
Heading into November, the prairies experienced some warm weather before a major snowstorm blew through. Areas in Saskatchewan were hit hardest with Saskatoon, Prince Albert, and Kindersley getting 30-47 cm of snow. Long periods of freezing rain kept snow totals low in southeastern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba but made driving conditions quite treacherous.
Out east, a cooler October and early November turned into a second summer around Remembrance Day where there was an 8 day stretch of record-breaking highs. Over those 8 days, 200 daily high-temperature records were set from Ontario to Newfoundland.
8. Spring Goes Missing
Instead of being late like it often is, spring went missing with minus temperatures sticking around into May. Negative highs and wind chills pushed -35 in Alberta in April. On May 11th, Winnipeg broke their record cold temperature beating 1996’s -6.2 degrees with a low of -10.3 degrees. Snow also continued to fall throughout May in Ontario and Quebec.
7. Most Powerful Tornado Of The Year Touches Down In Manitoba
On August 7th, an EF-3 Tornado touched down near Virden. Wind speeds reached 260 km/h and a man from Sioux Valley First Nation lived the ferocity of the twister when the winds uprooted a pine tree, throwing it onto the roof of his jeep. The tornado also tragically took the lives of two 18-year-olds from Melita. This tornado was the strongest tornado recorded in Canada this year.
6. Record Hurricane Season For Atlantic Canada
While Manitoba saw the most powerful tornado of the year, Atlantic Canada experienced 13 hurricanes. At the end of the hurricane season, the total was 30 named storms, 13 hurricanes, 6 of which became major hurricanes.
5. St. John’s Snowmageddon
On January 17th, St. John’s got hit with what meteorologists call a bomb cyclone, where conditions quickly intensified. Over 18 hours, a metre of snow was dropped in the city. 20,000 hydro customers were without power and insurer costs were over $17 million.
4. Never-Ending Summer In The East
After spring stayed cold, with snow into May in Ontario and Quebec, the weather quickly shifted to record-breaking highs. On May 27th, Montreal reached 36.6 degrees, its hottest temperature in May ever and second-highest temperature the city has ever seen. Records continued to be broken throughout June and July.
3. Fort McMurray Flood
Fort McMurray residents were forced out of their homes for the second time in four years, although this time it was because of water instead of fire. A 25 km stretch of the Athabasca River saw ice jamming, which caused water to back up on the adjacent Clearwater River, flooding downtown Fort McMurray. Water levels rose up to 6 metres, causing 13,000 people to leave their homes. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimated the cost of the flooding from nearly 3,000 claims totalled above $562 million. One man drowned when he was caught by the rising waters.
2. All Smoke, No Fire In BC
BC had a second consecutive quiet fire season in 2020, however smoke plumes from the US travelled into the province. The smoke caused some of the worst air quality in recorded history. The long-term health effects for all residents are unknown.
1. Calgary’s Billion Dollar Hailer
Damage totals around 1.3 billion dollars resulted from a hail storm on June 13th in Calgary. More than 32,000 vehicles were extensively damaged with cracked and smashed windshields with vehicle write-offs totalling $386 million. Hail the size of tennis balls and golf-balls ricocheted out of the sky propelled by wind speeds up to 70 km/h.
Full details on each weather event can be found here.
