Historic river flooding occurred in British Columbia and New Brunswick, while the Greater Toronto Area experienced flooding almost every time it received a heavy rainfall. This year featured extreme and impactful weather events that caused costly damage across the country. As the Top Ten Weather Stories of 2018 bear out, Canadians must become more resilient-not only for what lies ahead but also for the variations in climate, which are already here. Events that were once rare or unusual for our grandparents are now more commonplace, while we all become more vulnerable due to extreme weather.

As Canadians continue to experience more and more extreme weather, intense month-long heat waves, suffocating smoke and haze from wildfires, and extreme flooding will simply be the norm mere decades from now. Weather changes in Canada are happening abruptly not subtly, rapidly not gradually. In fact, scientists have made a clear link between climate change and extreme weather events that include heat waves, wildfires, flooding, and sea ice disappearance. Scientists from Environment and Climate Change Canada have concluded that the risk of western fires since 2015 has increased two to six times due to human-induced warming and that, in the Arctic, extreme sea-ice minima in recent years would have been extremely unlikely in the absence of human influences. Storms seem to be getting bigger and moving more slowly, leaving more damage in their wakes. When it rains, it often rains harder and longer, with higher incidents of flash flooding, especially in our cities. In the Great Lakes, the past decade has featured both record high and low water levels.

Our growing seasons are longer, but so are the length and intensity of our wildfire seasons. Our mountain snowpack and glaciers are disappearing rapidly, and frost-free days are increasing. While Canada is still the snowiest country, less snow is falling in our southern regions. Canada is not as cold as it once was, with every region and all seasons warmer than ever before.

Trending news topics 2018 july