The folklore of Paul Bunyan tells of the Year of Two Winters, “when it snowed all summer and then it got colder.” The legend claims Paul put green glasses on
Heat, hail and hurricanes: A list of Canada s Top 10 weather events in 2020
by The Canadian Press
Last Updated Dec 16, 2020 at 1:14 pm EDT
Dave Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, has been compiling a Top 10 list of Canada’s weather events for more than two decades. Here are his picks for 2020:
1. Calgary’s billion-dollar hailstorm: On June 13, warm humid air collided with winds at various altitudes to generate several rounds of thunderstorm cells. Visibility dropped to half a kilometre, temperatures fell five degrees in less than six minutes and icy golf balls pounded down from the skies driven by 70-km/h winds. Hail shook houses, broke windows, downed trees and damaged 32,000 cars. Insured damages totaled $1.4 billion.
December 16, 2020 - 10:08 AM
Dave Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, has been compiling a Top 10 list of Canada s weather events for more than two decades. Here are his picks for 2020:
1. Calgary s billion-dollar hailstorm: On June 13, warm humid air collided with winds at various altitudes to generate several rounds of thunderstorm cells. Visibility dropped to half a kilometre, temperatures fell five degrees in less than six minutes and icy golf balls pounded down from the skies driven by 70-km/h winds. Hail shook houses, broke windows, downed trees and damaged 32,000 cars. Insured damages totaled $1.4 billion.
2. British Columbia s smoky September: Although the province s own wildfire season was light, smoke from vast blazes in the U.S. Pacific Northwest choked the province for days. Residents from Victoria and east to the Kootenay region faced some of the worst air quality on record and some of the poorest and unhealthiest air in the world