Search results
May 31, 2023 · The Weather Network's 2023 Summer Forecast: Canada's Temperature Outlook. Drought is a concern in some areas this summer since the dominant storm track is expected to be primarily south of...
Jun 5, 2023 · Above-normal temperatures are likely to continue right through the summer with times of higher humidity levels. Winnipeg just had its fifth warmest May on record and June is off to a scorching...
- Anthony Farnell
Jun 21, 2023 · So, what does that mean for the upcoming summer season? Our summer forecast for late June, July, and August calls for a "come-and-go" summer across Canada. We will continue to see periods...
- Overview
- On this page
- Introduction
- Top 10 Weather Events in 2023
David Phillips, senior climatologist, has compiled this year-end list following an examination of significant weather events in Canada.
He has selected these stories based on factors including the degree to which Canada was impacted, the extent of the area affected, economic and environmental effects and the event’s longevity as a top news story in Canada and around the world.
•Introduction
•Top 10 Weather Events in 2023
•1. Record wildfires
•2. Canada cloaked in smoke
•3. Hottest Summer – on Earth and in Canada
•4. Deadly deluge in Nova Scotia
The degree of devastation across Canada in 2023 was difficult to comprehend. It was not a pretty picture given countless scenes of charred landscapes, scorched shells of former homes, and debris piles as evidence of powerful tempests, dried out riverbeds, and fields underwater as far as you could see. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets belied the hazy yellow-orange sky that you often could smell and taste - not the pristine, fresh air that is so much part of the Canadian environment. It was hard for the world to believe that such smoky skies could emanate from Canada. Across the country, more than ¼ million Canadians had their lives upended by fires and floods and some on two or three occasions. Even worse, lives were taken and many more lost their livelihoods, homes and possessions. Nearly 90% of the Alert Ready warnings issued in 2023 came from wildfire and weather hazards.
The extremes we saw in 2023 were devastating in many ways, but this is what climate change looks and feels like. What we saw this year only serves as a preview of what the future could bring if emissions of greenhouse gases are not rapidly curtailed. As the climate continues to warm, one can expect increasing wildfires, more intense droughts and hurricanes, and more intense heat waves.
Not in 28 years of Top Ten Weather Events has there been a more obvious number one story than Record wildfires in 2023. In fact, it could have represented four stories in one this year: record area burned, continuation of multi-year drought, torrid heat and foul smoky skies for months on end. At times, out-of-control fires burned in nearly every province and territory. It was a story that captured international attention for much of the year. Fighting wildfires across Canada was a national preoccupation over three seasons, not the usual summer-long activity. In the end, 2023 was the worst wildfire year on record - at least twice the previous worst year and seven times the 10-year average of forests consumed by fires. Entire cities and several Indigenous communities were emptied by the threat of wildfires. Unbelievably, the area burned by wildfires stretched over 18 million hectares. One expert said that more than half the countries in the world could fit their geography into the total area burned this year in Canada.
The Earth’s average temperature this summer was one for the record books. Moreover, 2023 is very likely to be the warmest year in possibly 125,000 years. For Canada, it was the warmest summer in 76 years, dating back to the start of national record-keeping in 1948. Even more noteworthy, if you include May and September, each province and territory recorded their warmest five months on record, with the exception of Atlantic Canada. Warm coastal waters resulted in the hottest ever marine heat wave in Canadian waters. Parts of the Prairie Provinces went from slush in late April to sweat in early May practically making spring a no-show. In Eastern Canada, it was the longest “hot season” on record with days above 30°C for the first time in April and October.
In late January and February, a lobe of the polar vortex dipped southward pushing from the North to West to East. Across the West, temperatures averaged 5 to 15 degrees colder than normal for some of the lowest temperature departures in a generation. With biting winds, temperatures felt as low as -59 with wind chill in northern Québec. Hydro utilities struggled to keep up with power demands leading to record consumption. Even ski resorts reduced hours of operation because it was just too cold to ski. It was a year when Western Canada had too little precipitation – unable to get a drop of rain to squelch wildfires or relieve drought, and the East had too much precipitation – just too wet for too long and too often. Before the Easter weekend, a powerful late-season storm moved into the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region bringing widespread freezing rain, ice pellets, hail and heavy rains. Power outages affected over a million customers in Québec and Ontario.
Flooding was another big story this year, including the new age flood of an urban kind in Prairie cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, and two- or three-times in Eastern cities like Québec City, Ottawa and Montréal. Outside of Halifax six weeks after fast-moving wildfires burned through the western half of the province, the region was hit by torrential downpours resulting in the devastating loss of four people, including two young children. Floods also caused unimaginable damage to personal property and infrastructure.
1. Record wildfires
A thick layer of smoke emanates from forest fires on the west side of Okanagan Lake. Image credit: Gabor Fricska The wildfire season across Canada was one for the record books on so many fronts. It began early, ended late, burned faster and was extremely active from British Columbia and the Territories to the Atlantic coast. Fighting wildfires in Canada often occurs on one side of the country at a time; this year massive wildfires were everywhere at once and lasted many months. On June 6, there were out-of-control fires burning in every single province and territory except in Prince Edward Island and Nunavut. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre in Winnipeg reported that the number of wildfires was above average, but there was an unbelievable record high total of woodland consumed - seven times the 10-year average. As cloud-to-ground lightning activity was recorded at the third lowest level in 22 years between January and September inclusive, lightning was clearly not the only cause of the wildland fires. Among the wildfire records shattered and statistics of 2023 were: 184,493 square kilometres of woodland up in smoke across Canada - the equivalent of nearly 1.5 times the size of the Maritime Provinces. By June 27, Canada had already surpassed its historic record for total area burned but the country continued to burn. The amount burned was more than double the previous high of 70,000 square km consumed in 1995 and dwarfed the 10-year average of 27,538 square km. According to provincial/territorial forestry officials in British Columbia, Alberta, Québec, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories, their jurisdictions burned a record total area, dating back to 1980. The area burned in Canada was more than the total area burned in the United States in the last five years --- that is 150,000 square km. Two fires exceeded one million hectares in Québec and British Columbia. In 2023 the average size of forest fires was 2,693 ha, compared to the historic average of 350 to 500 ha. Fortunately, no civilians died from wildfires, but tragically, at least four firefighters died while on duty in Canada. According to the Canadian Wildfire Evacuation Database, by the middle of September, 297 evacuation orders had been issued nationally. Evacuations numbered 235,458 people or as large as the population of Saskatoon, Burnaby or Vaughan. It included 20,000 residents from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories’ capital city and several other communities in southern areas of the territory. Citizens in West Kelowna, British Columbia and Sept Iles, Québec also left home including countless First Nations communities across the country. Even residents in Bathurst Inlet in Nunavut were forced to evacuate on August 11 – the first time a Nunavut community was evacuated for a wildfire. Some residents had to flee two or three times and travel 2,700 km away from home. Over 10,800 forest firefighters, nearly half of those from international crews, started fighting fires in May and were still there five months later. Property losses from six large fires numbered 17,000 claims for a total of over $1.1 billion not counting wildfires in Québec. Alberta This year’s fire season was unprecedented being both exceptionally early and widespread. In early May, a strong high-pressure ridge, said to be the strongest ever seen in four decades, created an early heat wave across the West. In Alberta, May temperatures averaged about 5 degrees warmer than normal – the warmest in 76 years of records. Spring in Alberta was also drier than in recent years and humidity was very low, pushing the start of the fire season much earlier than usual. Among the hot spots, Edmonton broke records for May close to 6 degrees above normal. Calgary had their second hottest May on record, some 4.5 degrees above normal. Once ignited, strong winds fanned dozens of fires in central and northern Alberta forcing 38,000 Albertans to evacuate by May 8. By May 12, nearly the entire province was under a fire ban and 19 local states of emergencies were in effect. In Edson, Alberta residents were evacuated on June 9 for the second time this spring. Flames closed several transportation routes shutting down access to dozens of parks and recreational areas. Fires also halted oil and gas activity representing nearly 5% of the nation’s petroleum production. By the end of May, wildfires had charred nearly 1.2 million ha, almost 100 times more than last year at that time. Around late May and June with rain falling, forest-fire crews began moving East to combat huge fires across the Maritimes and Québec. Nova Scotia The Maritimes went through one of their driest springs in several years. At the same time, meagre winter snow cover disappeared quickly leaving the moisture deficit on forest floors scanty and more typical of July than May. From February to May inclusive, total precipitation in Halifax was less than half of normal. Conditions were especially dry in April when several stations in Nova Scotia experienced their driest month on record. In May and early June, temperatures soared to 33°C and, as it turned out were the warmest few days of the entire summer, some 12 degrees above normal. As a consequence, when wildfires started up in May they were intense and fast-moving across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Further, significant amounts of fuel were left drying out after Hurricane Fiona raked the region eight months earlier. Out-of-control fires in late May forced 18,000 people from their homes in Halifax where the Tantallon fire was raging, and in a largely forested area of Shelburne County southeast of Yarmouth - the largest wildfires ever in Nova Scotia. Fires spread rapidly driven by hot, steady, gusty winds. Out-of-control fires prompted officials to impose widespread bans for hiking, camping, fishing and for forestry and mining operations. In total, more than 200 homes and other structures were fire-damaged or destroyed, mostly in northwest Halifax. Property insurance costs were estimated at $250 million. In early June, multi-day rainfalls between 100 and 175 mm helped to extinguish the flames. Québec Record-breaking heat around June 1 across western Québec, added to record dry weather through much of winter and spring, created tinder dry conditions across the province. Too many fires ignited at once and spread quickly. June wildfires in Québec burned nine times as much land as in any previous decade combined. Major hot spots occurred in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region and along the North Shore region of eastern Québec. A state of emergency was declared in Sept-Iles on June 2 forcing 5,000 people out of their homes. Some residents in Lebel-sur-Quévillon had to flee their properties on two occasions. Several mines in the province suspended operations because of the fire risk. Hydro-Québec airlifted close to 200 workers from hydro stations in northern Québec. Foreign fire fighters joined provincial-manned crews to extinguish flames. Hundreds of Canadian Forces personnel assisted with evacuations and firefighting. Northerly winds pushed smoke from Québec and northeastern Ontario fires into Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto and major cities in the eastern United States. Rains at the beginning of July helped extinguish some fires, although large blazes still burned out-of-control near James Bay. British Columbia Three years of unusually warm temperatures and scanty precipitation left conditions in much of British Columbia tinder dry at the end of April 2023. May ranked the warmest in 76 years, more than half a degree warmer than the second warmest May in 1998 (also a frightfully bad forest fire year). Much of the winter’s snowpack disappeared quickly denying rivers a steady flow through spring and early summer. By mid-May, special air quality statements and smoky sky bulletins had already been issued for several communities in Northeastern British Columbia. With hot flames and suffocating smoke threatening the region, 40,000 people were under an evacuation order or alert before the long weekend in May. The Donnie Creek fire between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson was well underway. This lightning-ignited fire began on May 12th and was still burning strongly and out-of-control at the end of September to become the longest burning wildfire in the province’s history, and the largest (5,800 square km). Dryness grew worse in summer and consequently fires grew aggressively across the entire province. Often 350 to 400 fires were burning at once with two thirds of them designated as out-of-control. There was rarely a respite for thousands of firefighters or the military. Evacuations from towns, rural areas, resorts, and vacation spots and First Nations communities continued all summer. In central British Columbia, following months of persistent dryness there was a meagre rainfall of 3.8 mm from July 13 and August 21. The erratic gusty winds, heat-dome temperatures, and thousands of lightning strikes in July ignited hundreds of wildfires in and around the Okanagan. In July, almost 170,000 lightning strikes hit the ground, or 55% more than normal, for the third most active July in 22 years of records. From the Okanagan Valley to the Fraser Canyon and east of Kamloops in the Shuswap-Adams Lake region, fires ignited in July but took off in mid-August forcing thousands of residents to stand on evacuation alert. Temperatures soared between 37°C and 42°C in parts of the Okanagan. The McDougall fire just 10 km from West Kelowna exploded 100 times its original size in less than one week and stayed ablaze for more than a month. Nearly 200 structures in parts of beleaguered West Kelowna, Westbank First Nations and in Kelowna were partially or entirely destroyed including the Lake Okanagan Resort. On August 5, northeast of Kamloops the Bush Creek-Adams Lakes fire doubled in size in two days scorching properties in Shuswap and on both sides of Adams Lake. On August 20, there was hope when Tropical Storm Hilary spun up from Mexico and started wetting eastern British Columbia but not further west where the rain was mostly needed. The airspace above Kelowna Airport closed to support aerial firefighters. In the Shuswap region, 170 homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged by fires. Across the West Kelowna and Bush Creek fires more than 22,000 residents were on evacuation orders or alerts. Even in Osoyoos, wildfires burned properties and forced evacuations but, in this case, it was fires from Washington State that came northward. Fire behaviour in British Columbia received a late-summer boost from higher-than-normal temperatures and lower than normal rainfall, especially in the north. The wildfire season remained in full swing for months. In the first week of October, 317 active fires were still burning across the province. Northwest Territories All spring and summer, the Northwest Territories experienced record high temperatures and negligible rainfall accelerating the wildfire threat. But the seeds of the unprecedented fire season were sown at least four years ago. In Yellowknife, almost every month since the end of 2020 was drier than normal for a combined moisture deficit of 340 mm in 36 months. Further evidence of the drought, historic low water levels along the Mackenzie River forced lengthy detours for goods in transit. Around mid-August, a ridge of high pressure settled over the territory sending temperatures soaring further, desiccating forests even more, and worsening conditions because of strong winds and frequent strikes from dry lightning. Forests had enough heat and dry stress and over 200 wild and unpredictable fires ignited with the majority out of control. The fire front was 60 km away from Hay River, Northwest Territories on August 13 pushed by strong wind gusts up to 70 km/h. The hamlet of nearby Enterprise was engulfed by the blaze and 80% of the town was burned down. By mid-August, fires grew dangerously close to several communities: 2 km from Hay River and 1 km from the airport; 4 km away from Fort Smith; 7 km from K’atl’odeeche First Nation and 15 km from the capital of Yellowknife. On August 18, out of control wildfires around Great Slave Lake forced officials to invoke mass evacuations involving thousands of people (nearly two thirds of the Northwest Territories’ residents), and also forced postponement of territorial elections until November 14. With fires so close and heavy smoke and falling ash choking the city of Yellowknife, an historic evacuation order was issued at 12 pm on August 18 and incredibly, 95% of the city heeded the order and stayed away for almost three weeks. Some travelled as far away as 3,000 km away, returning home after the second week of September. At the end, not all fires were extinguished. On October 16, 303 fires had consumed 4.2 million ha – ten times the 25-year average and with 91 fires still active as of November 21.
2. Canada cloaked in smoke
Smoke clouds rise over Dartmouth Nova Scotia and partially block out the sun. Image credit: Sansom Marchand With choking smoke filling the air across Canada, nobody was untouched by the devastating wildfires in 2023, and it was not just in Canada. Although Canada usually gets a bad reputation south of border for sending cold air, during the summer of 2023 plumes of acrid smoke travelled to the United States from Canada, making headlines in New York City and in many other parts of the country. More than 100 million Americans faced restricted breathing under poor air quality owing to smoke from Eastern Canada in June and May and later in the summer and fall from western and territorial wildfires. Further, smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean and fouled the air over Greenland, Iceland and other parts of Europe. Smoke brought hazy skies beginning in April to northeastern British Columbia when lightning ignited the Donnie Creek fire. Skies were still foul in October with over 753 fires still burning across Canada, nearly half described as “out of control”. In hot fire zones across Canada, poor visibility from smoke was a daily occurrence and so awful that at times fire crews could not even see what they were battling. Before the long weekend in May, wildfires in Alberta had already burned three times the annual burn in an average year. May wildfires in the west had cloaked most of Alberta and Saskatchewan and much of British Columbia with smoke such that air quality health indices were 10+ or very high risk. The risk was so high in Edmonton that the city launched its first extreme weather response to poor air quality: schools began holding recess indoors and cancelling outdoor excursions. Canadians in cities suffered with some of the worst air quality on Earth. At times, smoke shielded fires from the sun keeping temperatures below forecasted highs. Smoke was bad for crops too, hiding the sun and slowing plant growth. Late summer-early fall fires in the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and Alberta tainted the skies from western North America to the Great Lakes. In September, Yellowknife again found itself menaced by nearby fires, this time by thick smoke that turned skies an apocalyptic dark orange. On September 23, the city-hosted celebrations for returning home from three weeks of wildfire-forced evacuations had to be cancelled due to poor air quality. In Eastern North America, special air quality statements are not frequently issued due to smoke from Canadian wildfires, especially fires in eastern Canada. Smoky skies this June came largely from fires raging across Nova Scotia, northern and central Québec and northeastern Ontario. A low-pressure system over Maine and off Nova Scotia provided a counter-clockwise flow to funnel Canadian smoke southward. Occasional rainfall was not enough to extinguish wildfires until winds also had shifted. For much of June, thick smoke covered southern Ontario and Québec in concentrations well past the unhealthy threshold. The smell of smoke was inescapable as yellowish smog blurred city skylines. Montréal had the worst air quality in the world on the morning of June 25. Its fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration was 243, reaching 38 times the World Health Organization's air quality guideline. On June 7, air quality in Ottawa was rated high risk at 10+. The amount of fine particulate matter in Ottawa's air hit 511 when PM2.5 normally ranges from 4 to 11. Another blast of smoke at 243 on June 25 forced Dragon Boat Festival and the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival to be cancelled. The City also cancelled all outdoor recreational programs, closed outdoor pools, and issued no-swim advisories at city beaches. Yellow-tinted smoke settled over Toronto on several days in June. Under smoky haze, the smoke plume was so dense that airports had to pause or slow air traffic operations due to poor visibility. City hospitals saw a surge in the number of people visiting emergency departments with respiratory issues. At times winds would dissipate the smoke and rain scrub the air only for foul air to return within a day or two, often going from bad to worse. The number of smoke hours from May to early September, as defined when visibility is less than 9.7 km, revealed record-breaking smoke conditions across much of western, central and northern Canada. The city with the highest number of smoke hours was Fort Nelson with 1054 hours, followed by Fort St. John (867), La Ronge (802) and Peace River/Grand Prairie (625-644). Several major cities, including Kamloops, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon and Yellowknife, experience more than 200 hours of smoke.
3. Hottest Summer – on Earth and in Canada
The sun is rising above the silhouette of residential buildings. On Earth Blistering, baking, broiling, and “hell on Earth” were just some of the descriptors used to describe the record hot summer across the Northern Hemisphere in 2023. There is no question it was the warmest summer since 1940, and likely back to 1850 (the start of the pre-industrial averaging period) and, if reconstructing past climates using geological and biological evidence, likely the warmest in history dating back to when human beings began appearing 120,000 years ago. June 2023 was the hottest June ever, some 1.5°C above the 20th century average. July 2023 was the warmest month ever recorded globally, beating the previous warmest July in 2019 and some 1.5°C above the 1850 to 1900 average. The United States’ National Oceanic Atmospheric Association declared July 7, 2023 the hottest day on Earth at 17.42°C, beating the previous warmest just days earlier. August 2023 was the hottest August on record. For the three summer months, the Northern Hemisphere averaged 16.77°C - that is 0.66°C warmer than the current 1991-2020 average. September kept the record warmth going when the World Meteorological Organization announced it to be the warmest September on record. In the Southern Hemisphere, well-above average temperatures especially in August also occurred across Australia and New Zealand, several South American countries and around much of Antarctica where sea ice was at its lowest extent since satellite records began in 1979. Thus, with both hemispheres abnormally warm, Earth easily had its warmest June-to-August on record. Coming out of the warmest summer and September on record, 2023 featured the Earth’s warmest first nine months on record. Several factors contributed to the unprecedented heat. Record marine heat waves across several ocean basins stoked the heat throughout the summer and compounded the effects of ongoing anthropogenic climate change. With super-heated El Nino waters only expanding and strengthening in the tropical eastern Pacific, 2023 is very likely to be the warmest year on record in more than 150 years. In Canada Canada contributed more than its share to the Earth’s record hot summer. It was the warmest summer in 76 years, dating back to the start of national record-keeping in 1948. The average temperature anomaly was +2.0°C, beating the previous warmest in 2012. The warmest summers on record (with positive anomalies) also occurred in British Columbia (2.1°C), Yukon Territory (2.9°C) and Northwest Territories (3.1°C). Even more noteworthy, if we add May and September to the traditional three summer months, each province and territory, with the exception of Atlantic Canada, recorded their warmest five months on record. Atlantic Canada was left out of the top because it was too busy being too wet. Ocean temperatures bathing Canadian coastal waters were shockingly hot and with peaks occurring much earlier than ever before. At summer’s peak (July 17 to August 7), the Canadian Atlantic surface waters were 3 to 5 degrees above normal and as hot as it ever has been in the North Atlantic. Unofficially, a hot day in Canada is defined when the day’s maximum temperature exceeds 30°C. In the British Columbia Interior hot days were far above historic averages. Kamloops recorded 62 hot days in 2023, compared to a historic average of 33. And Lytton, which in 2021 set a new record for the hottest day ever in Canada, topped 30°C for 71 days - 38 days above the average. Canada’s hottest temperatures in 2023 occurred during a sweltering and protracted heat wave in mid-August when the day’s maximum exceeded 40°C in five locations. Lytton was Canada’s hot spot in 2023 at 42.2°C on August 15. Temperature soared above 37°C in the Northwest Territories in early July. Fort Good Hope, Nunavut reached a record high of 37.4°C on July 8, more than two degrees above the previous record. Within sight of the Arctic Circle, the small town of Norman Wells hit 37.9°C also on July 8. It was easily the farthest north in Canada with a reading of 37°C or higher in the Canadian climate record, and just 0.1°C shy of the hottest temperature ever observed that far north in the world. In Yukon, Carmacks set an all-time daily maximum temperature record on July 7 at 35.5°C the third-hottest daytime temperature ever recorded in Yukon. In Winnipeg, winter ended and summer began on May 1 when the coldest March and April ended and the warmest May and June ever on record began. Both July and August were cooler than normal followed by a very warm September making for a relatively long summer and one of the longest growing seasons on record. Across the Great Lakes and Atlantic Canada summer temperatures were hardly hot. Some of Canada’s largest cities in the East did not experience a hot day from the second week of July to the first week of September. All that Toronto could muster this summer was 33°C. By mid-summer, Easterners had written summer off. But summer came back when Ottawa registered four days above 30°C in September and two in October. Never before in 141 years of weather records has Ottawa ever seen a temperature above 30°C after September 22. Montréal went 58 days in mid to late summer without registering a 30°C day. Neither Montréal nor Toronto had a 30°C temperature in September in the previous four years. This year’s September sizzle made up for that when consecutive hot days numbered four or five around Labour Day. Even more spectacular, the dog days of summer showed up in early October with at least two days above 30°C. Even after snow and cold arrived in the West at the end of October, parts of the East were still breaking warm temperature records.
Sep 23, 2023 · Summer 2023 in Canada will not be forgotten any time soon. It will be remembered for many notable and extreme weather events, but none more so than its record-breaking wildfires. It...
- Nathan Howes
Indeed, across much of the Rockies, Prairies, and Great Lakes, there will be “occasional bouts of heavy precipitation, primarily from showery rains and big thunderstorms,” the forecast continues. Let’s get right to it. Here is the Farmers’ Almanac’s 2023 summer forecast for Canada.
People also ask
Will Summer 2023 be remembered in Canada?
Will 2023 be a record-breaking summer?
Will 2023 be hard to beat?
Will there be heavy precipitation in Canada in 2023?
How hot was August 2023?
What is British Columbia's weather outlook for summer 2023?
Sep 6, 2023 · The summer may not be over, but its heat has already "annhiliated any previous summer," says one climatologist, making 2023 a strong contender for a record-breaking year.
