Historic wildfires, floods, rain: Canada’s top weather stories of 2023

In a year marked by severe weather events across the country, Environment Canada has released a list of the top weather stories of 2023.

Experts say climate change is fuelling extreme weather as Canada’s landscape and thousands of people across the country pay the price.

Deadly floods, relentless rain, violent winds and the worst wildfires of the century.

The earth’s hottest year on record and Canada’s warmest summer of all time led to a devastating upheaval from coast to coast.

“This was Canada’s wake up call. It was the year everything changed.” says Cheryl Evans Director of Flood and Wildfire Resistance at the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation.

Environment Canada’s list of the top 10 weather stories of 2023 was released Wednesday, with the unprecedented wildfire devastation making the round up.

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“The fires came early and stayed late. They were monster sized. These little guys that would blossom overnight into a burning inferno.” says climatologist David Phillips.

Nearly 200,000 people fled their homes as out-of-control fires burned through communities, destroying homes, ecosystems and air quality in their wake.

“In previous years you’d have one part of the country impacted and then folks from the other side of the country would not be impacted so they would come and help.” says Evans.

Parts of Canada and the Eastern United States remained cloaked in smog for weeks. Millions of people were urged to shelter indoors as Toronto registered the world’s worst air quality and the dangerous haze turned skylines and apocalyptic orange.

“It cannot be ignored, what’s going on,” says Muhammad Altaf Afrain, Director of McMaster University’s Centre for Climate Change. “We see major impacts on the peopels’ health and their wellbeing and economic systems.”

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Historic rains and flooding hit Nova Scotia in July, submerging vehicles as rivers overflowed and homes were inundated. Two children, one teen and a man would be killed.

In the west, consistently dry weather created catastrophic impacts for everyone from farmers to fish.

On the east coast, the rain began in June and didn’t let up, amounting to property damages up to three quarters of a billion dollars being recorded.

Rounding out the list are more extreme events such as Hurricane Lee, an ice storm that hit Ottawa and Montreal in April, cold spells in a warm year, Quebec’s record wet July and the powerful tornado that twisted through Alberta on Canada Day.

Experts say the roadmaps to address climate change exist, but the political will is still missing.