The tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia and east Africa topped the news headlines at the beginning of 2005. Caused by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the tsunami left hundreds of thousands of people dead and destroyed homes, schools and livelihoods in more than a dozen countries. This past August, thousands more were left homeless in the United States due to hurricane Katrina. Then there was everything in between. The year's relentless, unstoppable weather extremes wreaked havoc around the world, including: the driest year in decades across the Amazon rainforest; a record drought in southeastern Australia; weather striking Europe with a vengeance, with eastern sections under water and searing heat and wildfires in the south; weeks of torrential rains and floods in south China, while droughts plagued the north; and in India and Pakistan, deadly heat followed by flooding monsoons.
Globally, it was the second warmest year on record over the past 145 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization – the costliest, with record losses from weather-related disasters around the world totalling $200 billion. Ominously, we also saw a record shrinkage of ice cover on the Arctic sea with possible disappearance in sight. David Phillips, Senior Climatologist at Environment Canada never has trouble finding Canadian weather tales at the end of each year. Canada is a country of weather extremes. And so with 2005 we again have tales of heat, floods, storms and snow, some of which were so extreme that many scientists believe that climate change is a factor. But, even with these long tales of unusual weather, we Canadians are feeling luckier than many outside of our borders after this year of weather headlines from around the world.

From Rain to Flood
This was the wettest year ever in Canada, with rain, rain and more rain dominating the weather news from coast to coast.

In mid-January, following a two-week blast of wintry weather across BC's Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, a persistent flow of record warm, moist air dubbed the "Tropical Punch" engulfed southwestern British Columbia. Temperatures soared to record levels. Abbotsford reached a balmy 18.1 °C on the 19th, the highest January temperature recorded anywhere in the province since 1899. The system soaked the BC coast with record rain. The week-long rains washed out bridges and highways, caused mud slides and forced hundreds to flee mud-filled homes.

Several Nova Scotia communities experienced their driest summer on record in 2005. But before the dryness, they had to endure their wettest spring ever. At Halifax, spring rainfall from March to May inclusive totalled a record 589.4 mm – some 225 mm greater than normal. Of the total, more than half fell in May, drowning the previous record of 230.1 mm set in 1971.

Once again, Alberta owned the year's number one weather story with record June rains and ensuing floods that became the province's costliest disaster ever. Three major storms about 10 days apart drenched the region, generating record high water levels. Floodwaters forced residents out of their homes, washed out roads and parks, destroyed sewers, bridges and other infrastructure, wrecked buildings and drowned livestock.

Some of those same summer storms then rolled into Manitoba and triggered the worst summer flooding in that province's history. Summer thunderstorms were widespread, intense and frequent, arriving in bands 20 minutes apart that often tracked across the same ground. Waterways recorded their highest summer flows on record. Parts of paved highways were under water for days on end. And some of the best farmland in Canada was too soggy to farm.

Alberta owned the year's number one weather story with record June rains and ensuing floods.

Some of those same summer storms rolled into Manitoba and triggered the worst summer flooding in that province's history.

In Ontario, a family of August afternoon storms generated a deluge in Canada's largest city that in less than two hours became the most expensive weather disaster in the province's history.

Forecasters predicted another active Atlantic hurricane season, but hyperactive was more like it! The final tally was 27 tropical storms and 14 hurricanes – both new all-time records.

Montreal logged 23 days of temperatures exceeding 30 °C while Toronto recorded a whopping 41 – nearly three times the average!

Scorching Heat and Sudden Storms
At times during the summer, residents across Ontario and southern Quebec either enjoyed or endured bouts of torrid heat and insufferable humidity. Combined with a record number of smog days, it was easily one of the hottest, sweatiest and dirtiest summers ever. Montreal logged 23 days of temperatures exceeding 30 °C while Toronto recorded a whopping 41 – nearly three times the average! With high heat both day and night along with record breaking number of smog advisories, came some illness and grouchiness in the south. Yet, the majority of residents seemed ecstatic over a summer that just went on and on into the fall.

Steeles Avenue in Toronto after August 19th storm. Photo: Brian Campbell – Click to enlarge.

One disturbance in the summer heat came in the afternoon of August 19 when a line of severe thunderstorms tracked eastward across southern Ontario from Kitchener to Oshawa, including the northern half of Toronto. Literally dozens of thunderstorms were popping up at any one time. At its worse, the system spawned two F2 tornadoes with gusts between 180 and 250 km/h. The twisters uprooted hundreds of trees, chewed the limbs off of countless others, downed power lines, tossed cars and trucks aside, and ripped into several homes, cottages and barns. In its wake, the storm left a trail of damage that, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, represented the highest insured loss in the province's history, exceeding $500 million, more than 2.5 times Ontario's losses during the infamous ice storm of 1998.

In the first week of November 2005, a vicious "witches" storm pummelled the lower Great Lakes region packing wind gusts of 90 km/h. South of the Great Lakes, the storm spawned a deadly tornado in Indiana that killed 22 people. In Ontario, damage was – for the most part – minor and localized. Hydro One, the province's power generating company, reported up to 70 000 customers without power across the province. On November 9, another line of storms moved through the province. The day proved to be one of the wackiest weather days ever in Ontario. Temperatures climbed to a balmy 20 °C in Windsor, Ottawa experienced a bout of freezing rain, Barrie had snow and Hamilton saw a rare tornado. As an F-1 category tornado, it packed winds up to 180 km/h. The tornado carved a narrow 7-km path through the city, causing extensive damage to some homes but sparing their next door neighbours. The twister damaged a school and lifted the gym's roof off its foundation. At least a dozen homes were so badly damaged that residents couldn't move back in. A third major "witches" brew struck southern and central Ontario on November 16 and 17. Wind gusts reached as high as 100 km/h. Hydro One reported that fierce winds again knocked out power to more than 50 000 customers across the province.

Year of the Hurricane…But Not in Canada
Forecasters predicted another active Atlantic hurricane season, but hyperactive was more like it! The final tally was 27 tropical storms and 14 hurricanes - both new all-time records – with two years' worth of storms in one. The busy storm season reflected a continuation of above-normal activity that began in 1995. Since then, all but two Atlantic hurricane seasons (1997 and 2002) have been stormier than normal. In 2005, more than half the storms ventured into the western Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico where sea surface temperatures were at their second warmest since 1982 when satellites were first used to observe water temperatures. While a record number of tropical storms swirled their way through the North Atlantic, surprisingly, few of them headed northward into Canada and none had nearly the impact of those in the United States and the Caribbean.

Snow, More Snow and No Snow
The winter forecast for the West Coast was warmer and drier than normal. No one, however, foresaw the scanty snowfall and thin snowpack that accumulated over British Columbia's winter resorts. Never in recent years had snow conditions been so pathetic, leading to huge economic write-offs and major disappointment among snow enthusiasts. For such fans, worse weather could not have occurred: record January rainfall, record February sunshine and record warm March temperatures. And adding to the frustration, near-record snow fell in April just when most resorts had given up and closed for the season.

While in the Maritimes, after a week of heavy snow fall, on January 23-24, a slow-moving storm dropped record amounts of snow. Blizzard conditions occurred everywhere, with huge snowfalls and hurricane-force winds gusting to 130 km/h. Adding to the misery were very low temperatures, creating brutal wind chills of -35°C, unusually cold for the east coast. In many elevated places, snowfall totals exceeded 50 to 70 cm. Several weather stations broke their record for the snowiest January day. You know it's a lot of snow when they close highways, airports, schools, churches, stores and even ski hills.

Snow day in Gatineau, Quebec. Photo: Marc Rathier – Click to enlarge.

The year's final big snow event was not as damaging but hard to plow through. On December 14-15, a major weather system moved up the American east coast pushing significant snow into southwestern Ontario before lashing eastern Ontario and southern Quebec with a huge dump of snow. Communities around Toronto and to the west received between 10 and 15 cm of snow. From Trenton to Cornwall, snowfall totals exceeded 23 cm and included some ice pellets. Ottawa's morning rush hour was chaotic when 54 transit buses broke down or were in accidents. However, the storm left its biggest punch for Montreal. The city was socked with a record-breaking 41 cm in a mere 11 hours.