The year 2024 in Canada was flooded with impactful weather events across the country. In fact, it’s been the costliest year on record for natural disasters.
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), just the total cost of weather-related disasters in summer 2024 exceeded $7 billion, with a final tally for the year yet to be released.
DON’T MISS: 2024 confirmed as costliest year on record for weather disasters in Canada
Some of Canada’s top weather events in 2024. (The Weather Network)
This year’s most expensive disaster so far is the Calgary, Alta., hailstorm on Aug. 5, costing insurers almost $2.8 billion in incurred losses.
Insured damages aside, the year will be memorable for many reasons. Below is just a selection of what we consider to be the top weather-makers in Canada in 2024.
Destructive Calgary hailstorm
A record-breaking hailstorm hit the Calgary area on Aug. 5, resulting in close to $2.8 billion in insured losses, according to a September update from the IBC.
While there were no tornado warnings issued or reports of twisters from the Aug. 5 storm, the damage reported from golf ball-sized hail was plenty, easily rivalling that of the infamous 2020 hail event in Alberta that led to $1.3 billion in insured damages.
Calgary, Alta., August 2024 hailstorm damage. (Connor O’Donovan/The Weather Network)
Photos and videos from online showed widespread damage to vehicles and houses, as well as major damage to the Calgary International Airport. Footage showed ceiling tiles falling to the floor as water cascaded down through the roof of the airport’s domestic terminal building.
Devastating Jasper, Alta., wildfire
The Calgary hailstorm wasn’t the only memorable and destructive weather event in Alberta this year.
The wildfire that burned through Jasper National Park in the summer and destroyed a considerable portion of the townsite, IBC said.
The insured damages from the blaze––including homes, businesses, their contents and vehicles––were pegged at $880 million, according to IBC, adding that the wildfire is the costliest insurance event in Canada’s national park history.
Jasper, Alta., townsite wildfire aftermath, Aug. 12, 2024. (Connor O’Donovan/The Weather Network)
The Jasper Wildfire Complex, a group of blazes that burned 33,000 hectares altogether, was burning out of control for nearly four weeks.
Deadly B.C. atmospheric river in October
In the past two months, total rainfall amounts have exceeded 800 millimetres for portions of Metro Vancouver, such as Coquitlam.
A lot of the rainfall resulted from a deadly, destructive atmospheric river in October. Rated a Category 4, the event severely impacted the Lower Mainland, causing significant flooding and washouts, and resulting in multiple deaths.
It’s crazy in Burnaby right now, I have counted three cars, including a HandyDart bus stuck along Still Creek due to massive flooding. I spoke with a driver who got his car stuck so stay tuned to @CityNewsVAN for the latest. pic.twitter.com/oGe8iGdps6
— David Nadalini (@nadalini_david) October 19, 2024
Effingham forestry station on Vancouver Island recorded over 300 mm of rainfall, underscoring the extreme maximums from this powerful atmospheric river. Several locations saw a month’s worth of rain in just 48 hours.
Multi-day snowstorm in Nova Scotia leads to more than 100 cm of accumulations
The biggest weather story in Atlantic Canada in 2024 was a multi-day storm that happened early in the year, just after Groundhog Day in February.
A low-pressure system hit the pause button and stalled just southeast of Sable Island for 48 hours. An Arctic high over Labrador supplied the cold air, resulting in a blockbuster-snowfall event for those in the eastern Maritimes and central Newfoundland.
Sydney, N.S., had both its largest two- and three-day snowfall events on record, with 97 cm over the four-day affair. Some areas of Nova Scotia ended up with more than 100 cm of snow by the time it finished.
Sydney, N.S., snowfall in February 2024. (Mary Dunn/Submitted to The Weather Network)
Power outages were numerous, as were the road, school and business closures. Transit and flight delays and cancellations occurred, too, as a result of the marathon snow, and there were numerous collisions.
Cape Breton Regional Municipality declared a local state of emergency for seven days after the event.
Multiple floods in Toronto and southern Ontario
Southern Ontario experienced multiple flooding events in July and August, leading to Pearson International Airport’s wettest days and summer on record.
On the morning of July 16, Pearson airport picked up a whopping 97.8 mm of rain –– more than a month’s worth. The 1991-2020 climate normals for July rainfall in Toronto is 74 mm.
The July 16 flooding in Toronto and southern Ontario resulted in more than $940 million worth of insured damage, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reported this year.
And in the following month, on Saturday, Aug. 17, Pearson airport reported 128.3 mm of rain, making it the rainiest day ever recorded there. That also led to flooding in the GTA and other parts of southern Ontario.
July 16, 2024 flooding in Toronto. (Tyler Hamilton/The Weather Network)
What led to the bouts of excessive rainfall can be blamed on significant moisture anomalies with unusually high amounts of waper vapor in the atmosphere.
DON’T MISS: How weather and landscape set the stage for Toronto’s latest flood
WATCH: Significant urban flooding impacted cities across Canada in 2024
Flooding and extreme rainfall hits Quebec
August saw the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby soak parts of Quebec with flooding rains.
Localized flooding took place in some parts of Montreal, Que., including the Saint-Laurent borough. Highways such as the 40, near De la Côte-de-Liesse Road, and 13 northbound were affected by the excessive rainfall amounts.
Aug. 9 was also the wettest day recorded in Montreal as a result. At least two rounds of heavy rain and training thunderstorms washed over the region, leading to at least 154 mm of rain in Montreal. This makes for the highest, one-day rainfall total ever recorded at Montreal airport. The previous all-time, one-day rainfall record was 93.5 mm set back in 1996.
Widespread rainfall totals of 70-100+ mm have fallen throughout eastern Ontario and southern Quebec as a result of the system fuelled by Debby remnants.
Late-season tornadoes hit B.C. and Eastern Canada
Severe thunderstorms tumbled well into fall, with wild milder temperatures persisting across much of Canada and 13 confirmed tornadoes, some of which were exceedingly rare.
Notable November tornadoes
Nov. 1 – Atlantic Canada, which averages a single tornado per year, recorded three in November on a single day––no small feat. Tornadoes in Harvey, Sheffield, and Church’s Corner had peak winds of 150 km/h.
Nov. 4 – B.C. reported a rare tornado west of Sechelt, with winds of 115 km/h causing tree damage in the area.
Nov. 10 – An EF-0 tornado struck Fergus, Ont., during a late-season thunderstorm event, causing minor roof damage. November tornadoes are rare in Ontario, and only four have been recorded in the past. But this one wasn’t the latest. On Dec. 12, 1946 a tornado occurred in Exeter, Ont.
The first Canadian tornado of 2024 has been officially recorded. On March 16, the EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 150 km/h, hit Malden Centre, Ontario. That ties the record for the earliest tornado ever recorded in the province.
Read more: https://t.co/9lwGZMZo9i pic.twitter.com/D0FsG4kNm6
— The Weather Network (@weathernetwork) April 15, 2024
Ontario not only had a late end to the 2024 tornado season, but an early start, too.
In fact, Ontario’s first tornado this year on March 16 in Malden Centre tied the provincial record for the earliest calendar-date occurrence of a twister. The other March 16 tornado happened in Clifford, Ont., in 2016.
WATCH:Top 5 Canadian weather records broken in 2024
It contains files from CBC, Connor O’Donovan, a video journalist at The Weather Network, and Tyler Hamilton, a meteorologist at The Weather Network.
Thumbnail courtesy of Sarbraj Singh Kahlon/@sarbrajskahlon, taken in Surrey, B.C.