Canada's top ten weather stories of 2012
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A year in review - 2012 weather stories
From super storms to super heat, and from immense flooding to immense fires; go big seemed to be the theme for Mother Nature in 2012.
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Top ten weather stories
1. 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!
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2. Super Storm Sandy and Another Active Hurricane Season
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.
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3. BC Flooding...Larger, Longer and Lethal
High levels of early spring flooding in British Columbia caused washouts, and slides, evacuations and fatalities.
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4. March's Meteorological Mildness
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.
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5. Summer on the Prairies... Warm, Wet and Wild
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.
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6. The Big Melt
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.
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7. High and Dry in the East
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.
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8. The Year of the Urban Flood
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.
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9. Hail to Calgary...Again
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.
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10. Historic Ice-jam Flooding in the Saint John River
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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Runner-up stories for 2012
- Winter's Last Harrah
- $100 Million Storms Across Ontario and Quebec
- Early Start to Forest Fire Season
- Glorious BC Summer Book-ended by Wetness
- Return of West Nile Virus
- From Fire to Ice in Manitoba
- Record Snows on the Prairies
Regional highlights
Atlantic Canada
- Winter's First Blast
- Nasty Weather Bomb
- Deadly Maritime Storm
- No March Warmth, Just Storm in Newfoundland
- Story Music
- Soggy September in Halifax
Quebec
- Rare Mid-January Start to Winter
- Two Troublesome Tornadoes
- Lightning Death
- Microburst Kills Teenage Golfer
- All Good Warmth Must Come to an End
- A Smoggy November
Ontario
- Aircraft Accident
- Finally, a Touch of Winter
- Ice Jams Prompt Evacuations - Again
- Hailstorm Pelts Essex County
- Texas-sized Hailstones
- September Twisters
- Record Year for Great Lakes Waterspouts
- Wawa Wallop
- Remembrance Day Warmth to Remember
Prairie Provinces
- Winter Comes and Goes
- Snow Can't Stop Curling
- White Easter Followed by Record Warm
- Massive Supercell with Everything
- Demand Exceeds Supply
- Storm Chasers Kept Busy in Saskatchewan
- Nature's Summer Fury
- Warm Winnipeg
British Columbia
- Winter - A Curse or a Blessing?
- Winter Bomb Dropped on BC
- Avalanche Season
- The Only Snow Around
- Deadly Wind Gust
The North
- Wicked Winter Storm across the NWT
- Arctic Ice Roads
- Floods Cut Yukon Supply Lines
- Funnel Cloud, Tornado or Both?
- The Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012
- Iqaluit's Record September Rains
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