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Top Ten Weather Stories 2012 - Large Maps

1. The Big Heat

Map of Canada highlighting all provinces and territories experiencing the big heat.

Canadians experienced above normal temperatures and several record breaking days through winter, spring and summer from coast to coast to coast. It’s been a warm year…and decade!

2. Super Storm Sandy and Another Active Hurricane Season

Map of Canada - highlighting the eastern provinces that were affected by Hurricane Sandy.  This includes Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island the southern tip of Baffin Island.

Forecasters were right on the money when they accurately predicted another active Atlantic hurricane season in 2012. At season’s end, there were 19 named storms from Alberto to Tony, 10 of which became full-blown hurricanes.

3. BC Flooding… Large, Longer and Lethal

Map of Canada, highlighting the province of British Columbia, as well as Johnson's Landing, BC.

High levels of early spring flooding in British Columbia caused washouts, landslides, evacuations and fatalities.

4. March’s Meteorological Mildness

Map of Canada, highlighting the eastern provinces. This includes Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

The March 2012 heat wave was off the scale in every way: intense, huge and long-lasting. The heat eclipsed every previous temperature record and upstaged the winter that wasn’t.

5. Summer on the Prairies … Warm, Wet and Wild

Map of Canada, highlighting the prairie provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

Summer on the Prairies started out with short-lived cool temperatures and ended as one of the top ten warmest on record. It followed a spring that was the third wettest and fifth warmest in 65 years of record-keeping.

6. The Big Melt

Map of Canada, highlighting the Arctic waters down to Hudson Bay.

The year 2012 will go down as one of extraordinary change across the Arctic Ocean, with sea ice that is becoming dramatically thinner, weaker and younger, and melting more easily.

7. High and Dry in the East

Map of Canada, highlighting the eastern provinces. This includes Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Higher than normal temperatures and a lack of rainfall in Eastern Canada meant a great summer for most outdoor enthusiasts but trouble for some crops and water systems.

8. The Year of the Urban Flood

Map of Canada highlighting the cities that were impacted by floods. These cities include: Edmonton, Calgary, Thunderbay, Toronto, Hamilton, and Montreal.

While flooding typically hits rural areas hardest, 2012 brought equal opportunity flooding to many urban Canadians. Thunder Bay experienced record breaking flooding in May while Montreal and Toronto also found themselves with expensive floods weeks later.

9. Hail to Calgary...Again

Map of Canada highlighting Calgary, Alberta.

A monstrous hailstorm pelted parts of Calgary with hailstones larger than golf balls late on August 12th. In a matter of 10 minutes, pounding hail dimpled vehicles and riddled house siding with millions of dents.

10. Historic Ice-jam Flooding on the Saint John River

Map of Canada highlighting Saint John River in Andover-Perth, New Brunswick.

The first days of spring were marked by a mandatory evacuation for 500 residents of Perth-Andover and Tobique First Nation when the Saint John River and several of its tributaries spilled onto nearby fields and roads.

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