In the last five years alone, Canada has experienced an alarming increase in extreme weather events. The nation is warming at more than twice the global rate, with the Canadian Arctic at about three times the global rate. Raging wildfires, deadly droughts and destructive floods show the country's climate is already changing, with scientists and experts warning these are only set to increase. We take a look at the shocking images that reveal Canada's climate crisis.
Between 16 April and 8 May 2018, Fredericton experienced record-breaking floods which affected over 12,000 properties and 140 roads and bridges. The New Brunswick capital (pictured) saw its rising water levels peak at 26 feet (8.15m), leading to urgent action by the Coast Guard and rail shuttle services assisting residents into emergency shelters. The floods caused CA$75 million ($55m/£43m) in damages and was described as “eerily consistent” with climate change predictions.
Following a catastrophic combination of heavy rains and snowmelt, in April 2019 spring floods burst records in the Montreal suburb of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac after a natural dyke was breached. It took weeks for the waters to recede, with some 10,000 people evacuated from their homes; pictured here is a once-treelined road in a residential area. The floods contributed to 82 landslides and 760 roads and highways were either washed out or damaged.
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Although Hurricane Dorian was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone in September 2019, disaster struck on 7 September when winds of up to 100 miles per hour (160km/h) hit the city of Halifax. Trees were drowned, a crane toppled and roofs were torn off, before it wreaked more havoc in Newfoundland and Labrador, with record waves measured off the Newfoundland coast. It's strongly believed that climate change increased the likelihood of Dorian's extremity.
You'd expect to see snow in Newfoundland, but St John's saw an unusually high amount in January 2020. A so-called "bomb cyclone" delivered high winds and dumped 2ft 6in (0.7m) of snow in the city, making it the highest daily snowfall on record. Wind gusts caused extreme snow drifts that buried cars, blocked roads, downed powerlines and even created a small avalanche. It was linked to climate change as unusual jet stream behaviours can increase these types of storms.
In June 2020, huge, tennis ball-sized hailstones pounded Calgary and its streets were covered in white ice. The hail may not be all that unusual but rising global temperatures could be the cause of more violent storms; this one particularly affected houses, vehicles and crops in and around the city. In fact, it was so ferocious that it was reported as the fourth costliest natural disaster in Canada's history.
Between 25 June to 1 July 2021, western Canada suffered the deadliest weather event in the country's history. There were 103 all-time heat records noted across the provinces, with Lytton, a town in British Columbia, recording Canada's highest ever temperature of 49.6°C (121.3°F). The entire town burned in a wildlife with 618 heat-related deaths as a tragic result. Scientists have said that this was a direct result of climate change.
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Pictured here is a hazy sunrise in Toronto. Taken on 19 July 2021, the skyline is blanketed in a thick fog, caused by smoke from the numerous forest fires that tore through western Canada between June-August 2021. Wildfires create toxic air quality conditions for millions of people, which is worsened by climate change.
In August 2021, farmers in southern Saskatchewan were hit with major production losses when a hard-hitting drought saw the region receive a pitiful 50mm of rain (compared to 190mm during a normal year). Cracked dry earth, hotter-than-normal temperatures and wind all contributed to worryingly low crop numbers. Pictured here are two farmers in Davidson planting crops earlier in the year, as part of an attempt to resolve this ongoing crisis.
Thousands of British Columbia residents were left without homes and businesses in November 2021 after extreme rainfall brought a "historic flooding". Officials extended the province's state of emergency all the way until 18 January 2022, with numerous destructive deluges and landslides wreaking havoc. The summer's ferocious wildfires were partly to blame for the floods' impact as they had stripped hills of vegetation, making landslides all the more likely.
On 17 January 2022, Ontario experienced a “once-in-a-decade kind of storm” with snowfall and blizzard-like conditions blanketing downtown Toronto with 14 inches (36cm) of snow by 2pm. Toronto Pearson International Airport was also hit with 12.5 inches (32cm) of snow that day, beating the previous daily record of three inches/7.6cm in 1994.
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Ottawa didn't fare much better. Some 1.96-4.72 inches (5-12cm) of snow were dumped per hour, while Ottawa International Airport received 17.7 inches (45cm) on the same day. This made it the city's snowiest day since 2016 and the most snow to fall on 17 January since records began in 1873.
Extreme weather swings are another sad reality of climate change. In spring 2022, Manitoba experienced a drier-than-normal March, but the following month it recorded the second-wettest April in 151 years with four times the normal amount of rain. Pictured here is the flooded hamlet of Howden, just south of Winnipeg, in 2022. Compare that to the wildly different summer of 2021, where the province recorded the driest July since 1873, and the extremes speak for themselves. Experts say that although this may not be a direct impact of climate change, it’s certainly a symptom of it – with heavy flooding only set to increase.
In September 2022, Hurricane Fiona started in the Caribbean and made its way up to Canada, with heavy rain and wind hitting Nova Scotia on 24 September. Pictured here is one of the (many) devastated homes before Fiona spent the following days battering Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and parts of Quebec. Boats and roads were severely damaged and the Category 4 hurricane was later named as the costliest storm in Canadian history, with damages totalling CA$660 million ($488m/£405m).
Winter is always cold in Canada, but in late January and early February 2023, a once-in-a-generation blast of Arctic wind brought temperatures down to dangerous levels. At Montreal International Airport, the wind chill was measured at -41°C (-41°F). Residents across eastern Canada (including Toronto) were under extreme cold advisories and schools were shut, but that didn't stop some people from going outside.
Then, in April 2023, Quebec was hit by another major ice storm – this time proving fatal. Montreal (pictured) was one of the worst-hit areas in the province. High winds toppled trees, tragically killing one person, and just under a million people were left without power. The ice storm also reached Ontario, where around 110,000 were left without power and another person was sadly killed by a falling branch.
In February 2023, the world's largest skating rink was unable to open for the first time in 50 years. Ottawa's Rideau Canal Skateway is UNESCO-listed and needs a steady temperature of -10°C to -20°C (14°F to -4°F) in order to freeze. However, as the city recorded one of its warmest winters yet, the ice rink was deemed unsafe to use. Canada's environment minister described the skateway’s closure as "yet another example of how our climate is changing in Canada”.
Canada suffered its most devastating wildfire season between January and June 2023, with 3,056 blazes scorching some 20 million acres of land. Several provinces were affected, with smoke reaching as far as the European continent. While wildfires aren't directly linked to the climate crisis, the hotter and drier conditions caused by the warming of the planet have made Canada’s forests prime targets. Pictured here is a fire sweeping across the northwest region of British Columbia.
From 27 May 2023, Nova Scotia battled its most catastrophic wildfires in recent history. On 12 June, nearly 450 forest fires burnt across the country, with almost half out of control. A spokesman from the Department of Natural Resources explained that the combination of high temperatures (above 30°C/86°F), low humidity and powerful winds caused the wildfires to spread.
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In late 2022, heavy rainfall in certain areas of the country helped increase salmon numbers, but the luck was reversed in July 2023 when devastating droughts hit British Columbia. Pictured here is a dried-up lakebed in Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island, which should be flowing with water. At the time of writing, British Columbia has received Drought Level 5 (the most severe rating), meaning that socio-economic and ecosystem values will "almost certaintly" be heavily impacted. Scientists say this extreme weather “screams climate change”, explaining that cold and warm records should be equal.
Since August 2023, rampant wildfires have ravaged western Canada and displaced hundreds of residents. Lake Okanagan, one of the region’s biggest lakes, was shrouded in thick smoke with fires “jumping” across the 1.5-mile-wide (2.5km) water. The British Columbia Premier, David Eby, said that the fires are “clearly linked to human-caused climate change”. The wildfires are made worse by droughts, which the province has experienced for the last four consecutive years. Pictured here is a helicopter dropping water over McDougall Creek.
The boreal forest sits just beneath the Arctic Circle and has been described as a 'big carbon-storing hug'; it’s important for the climate and is home to over 20,000 species. Sadly, 120 wildfires have raged across the forest and other parts of northern Saskatchewan in the last five years, with 209 recorded in 2023 alone. In May 2023, temperatures reached an unusual 30°C (86°F), making it the hottest and driest month on record in both Saskatchewan and Alberta – with climate change as a cause.
Neighbouring Alberta has also seen swathes of its boreal forest destroyed by wildfires, as this image shows. There have been over 400 wildfires in 2023 alone, displacing around 30,000 people. Alberta’s increasingly warmer and drier climates make wildfires here all the more likely, something experts have attributed to human-caused climate change.
In this striking image we see plumes of gas billowing into the skies. Research has shown that Saskatchewan’s oil refineries are misbehaving and, as a result, have a pretty bad methane footprint. Their oil production releases methane-heavy gases, generating massive amounts of climate pollution and energy waste. It appears that the province’s methane levels are 30-40% higher than what the government predicted.
Pictured here are two polar bears watching a pod of beluga whales pass by in Hudson Bay. Data has shown that this remote region of Canada has been losing winter ice cover at the equivalent of one day a year; in the last 40 years, the bay has become ice-free for 40 more days. If these decreasing rates continue, we could see a huge shift in dominant marine wildlife, with killer whales overtaking polar bears in the not-so-distant future.
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