Extreme events in a changing climate: Canada’s Top 10 Weather Stories of 2022  

December 21, 2022 – Ottawa, Ontario

Today, Environment and Climate Change Canada presented the 27th annual edition of the Top 10 Weather Stories in Canada.

This year’s top stories feature damaging storms, heat events, and floods, clearly demonstrating that Canadians across the country are experiencing unprecedented extreme weather, along with the very significant personal and economic impacts of these events. It will be months before the Insurance Bureau of Canada tallies final figures from significant weather events over the past year, but preliminary figures are well into the billions of dollars and insured losses will be only a fraction of the actual cost to properties, businesses, and infrastructure.

Canada’s Top 10 Weather Stories of 2022 are ranked from one to ten according to a number of factors, including: the impact they had on Canada and Canadians, the extent of the affected area, the associated economic impacts, and the longevity as a top news story.

The Top 10 Weather Stories of 2022:

1. Furious Fiona strikes Eastern Canada
2. Billion-dollar derecho rakes across Ontario and Quebec
3. Manitoba’s drenching spring
4. Return to hot and dry weather under the dome
5. Wildfires on two coasts
6. A wintery spring in British Columbia (without the flood)
7. Super storms track across the Prairies in July
8. Montreal swamped by humongous rain system
9. Record breaking cold in time for the holidays
10. Three weekend January storms stress Atlantic Canada

Although extreme events can occur in a world without human influence on climate change, science demonstrates that human-caused climate change is affecting the frequency, duration, and intensity of many climate-related hazards and disasters around the world, including in Canada.

Many Canadians have experienced extreme events and the Government of Canada is working to reduce our emissions, protect nature, and reduce biodiversity loss—and as a country, we will have to adjust to the changes that have already occurred. As Canada’s climate continues to change, preparing properly and adapting to the consequences of this change accordingly will make Canadians and their communities safer and healthier, shield our economy from shocks, and help avoid some of the steep and rising costs associated with extreme weather.

This is why the Government of Canada recently released Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy: Building Resilient Communities and a Strong Economy. With the Strategy, the government also announced $1.6 billion in new federal funding commitments to help protect communities from coast to coast to coast, as outlined in the Government of Canada Adaptation Action Plan.

This funding will help municipalities and townships build public infrastructures of the future, such as roads and bridges, that can withstand flooding and make sure Canadians have access to the information they need to stay safe during wildfires and extreme heat. It will also enable work with Indigenous communities on the development of region-specific health initiatives linked to changing climate conditions. The additional funding builds on existing federal commitments to adaptation, disaster resilience, and disaster response that total more than $8 billion to date.