Across Canada, extreme weather damage has cost almost $10 billion since 1998. IBC conducts research and develops strategies to help Canadians protect themselves from the effects of extreme weather. IBC’s “Telling the Weather Story” report is designed to help people plan for and mitigate damages from the stormy weather ahead.
Severe weather jeopardizes lives, property and livelihoods. And it is not getting better. Losses from natural catastrophes in Canada keep rising.
Managing the Storms Ahead with IBC Research
Because sound research in severe weather trends is critical, IBC commissioned Dr. Gordon McBean – one of Canada’s foremost climatologists – to research climate trends in Canada.
McBean was a lead author and review editor for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2007, he shared a Nobel Peace Prize with the IPCC. McBean is currently a professor at Western University in London, Ont., where he teaches environmental policy and environmental hazards.
Stormy Weather Keeps Hitting Canadians Hard
Consider the following.
- 2014’s polar vortexes and severe cold may have severely damaged 50% to 90% of the wine crops in Ontario’s Niagara region.
- 2013 was Canada’s worst-ever year for catastrophes:
- Severe flooding in southern Alberta – the costliest insured natural disaster ever – created more than $1.72 billion in insured losses
- Ice storm damage in Toronto left more than 300,000 households without power and cost an estimated $109 million
- A 2013 rainstorm in Toronto resulted in an estimated $65.2 million in water damage
- 2010’s severe hailstorms in Calgary damaged crops, dented cars and cost $400 million
- 2005’s record damages in Toronto from rain, sewers that backed up and flooded basements cost $500 million
- 1998’s ice storm in Quebec collapsed more than 3,000 transmission towers, left millions of people without power and cost $5.4 billion
Claim payouts from severe weather have doubled every five to ten years since the 1980s.
Source for the ice storm/rain storm $’s: Canadian Underwriter ;
Source for grapes in Ontario: Global News