Top Weather Events of 2012, Your choices? Options

[bigmt]

Not sure when EC puts out their top 10 year-in-review but I thought I'd give my picks and see what everyone else's were before they deliver the 'official' list. I'm gonna count anything major from here to the end of the year as part of winter 2012-13

These are the top 5 (in a loosely-ordered fashion) I could think of based around Canada, what are yours? No doubt there's many I missed.

Severe Weather Blasts the Prairies

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Summer weather was threatening and destructive through the Prairie Provinces, at times eclipsing the better known severe weather season down south. Hail, flooding rains and even tornadoes seemed to occur on an almost weekly basis. The Alberta government just recently announced that it will pay out $451 million in a record-setting number of crop insurance claims due primarily to hail damage from the volatile summer conditions.

The Dog Days of March

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A freakish weather pattern took hold in March 2012, blasting a large portion of North American with a heatwave unheard of so early in the year. Records were shattered in a spectacular fashion through Manitoba, Ontario and into the Maritimes. Nova Scotia saw it's highest ever March temperature and over a 7-day period beginning near the middle of the month areas of Ontario and Quebec (as well as a swath of the USA) had positive departures of 10c or more. Imagine that sort of anomalous warmth if it were to occur in late July! With such incredible heat at such an early date, the stage would be set for widespread disaster to come...

Superstorm

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While no stranger to storms, the New England coastline isn't as battle-hardened against powerful tropical systems as other areas further to the south and this year their luck ran out. Around Halloween, the confluence of a variety of very rare meteorological phenomena produced a monstrous hybrid storm which ravaged New York and New Jersey. The effects weren't as dramatic for Canada but there were still some deaths related to the storm as well as 145,000 power outages in Ontario alone.

Meltdown

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The record low Arctic sea ice minimum set not-so-long ago in 2007 fell by the wayside in September 2012. The extent dropped 760,000 square km below the previous record and was 49% below the 1979-2000 average. Residents of southern Canada may not always appreciate the ongoing and potential future effects in our own North, but the trend of vanishing sea ice continued in a big way this year.

The Great Drought

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The spectre of drought haunted North America in 2012, shifting position and intensity through the course of the year. With a badly depleted snowcover from a dud of a winter and the March heatwave, everything was in place for an intense summer to bake the land. Blistering temperatures entered a feedback loop with an ever-growing soil moisture deficit to decimate crops in both the USA and Canada. Eastern and Atlantic Canada suffered for the first half of the summer but even when the drought subsided in those regions it reappeared in the west with major rain shortfalls in BC and Alberta for the latter half. The situation is greatly improved for the majority of the country now but the long-term economic effects from the 2012 drought will linger.

[an uncanny otter]

Being so busy this year, it's been really had for me to keep track of Canadian weather events outside of southern Ontario, so my list will be centered around that region. That being said, when EC comes out with their top 10 list in December, I would bet that the summer heat, non-winter and prairie summer storms will be on that list for sure.

2012 has not been a terribly memorable year for weather for my area. Perhaps it is because we are coming off of 2011 which had more memorable events than I can remember, but this year seemed very quiet for the most part. That being said, there are definitely a few events I can recall that really stick out in my head.

-The non-winter of 2011-2012 for most of Canada (including southern Ontario) will stick out like a sore thumb for most of us. While Windsor and the southwest did not fare particularly bad in terms of snowfall (88 cm imby and 85.6 cm in Windsor; there have been many winters in the past that had less snow,) it was the incredibly warm temperatures that made the winter so tame. Average temperature for DJF 2011-2012 was 0.53C, when the average for Windsor is -3.1C, almost 4C above average. The longest stretch of consecutive days with at least 2 cm of snow on the ground was 5. (Compared to 52 in 2010-2011)

-The March heatwave will probably be remembered as the most significant meteorological event of 2012 for many in North America. To understand just how remarkable the heat was, here are some stats:
-Chicago broke a daily record high 9 days in a row.
-The average March temperature in Winnipeg was 10.8C above average.
-By the end of March, Lake Erie's surface temperature was about as warm as it usually is in mid-June.
-Dozens of areas had daily minimums higher than the daily maximum records.
-On March 22, some places in Nova Scotia surpassed 30C.

-Although not as severe here as in much of the United States, the combined heatwave and drought of June-July will definitely be remembered. Though the drought was never very severe here, July was one of the warmest on record. Windsor also broke the 100F mark on two separate days.

-I will remember Hurricane Sandy more for the devastation it caused out east, but it still had significant effects across Ontario as well. The waves on Lake Ontario the night Sandy blew through were some of the highest I've ever seen, and perhaps the strongest non-thunderstorm winds I've experienced; some of Sandy's worst damage in Canada arguably occurred in Sarnia.

[stuffradio]

For the drought out west, while it was dry, and lasted all the way until Thanksgiving, it wasn't bad at all. It was just nice to have the tap turned off for a few months. We've made up for the shortfall of rain and are in positive territory from all the rain we didn't get during the Summer until October. It rained almost 3 weeks straight after Thanksgiving giving us 300+ mm. Now we have the problem of having lots of rain and not enough dry/sunny days again as usual. The past couple days were really nice though.

[bigmt]

-The non-winter of 2011-2012 for most of Canada (including southern Ontario) will stick out like a sore thumb for most of us. While Windsor and the southwest did not fare particularly bad in terms of snowfall (88 cm imby and 85.6 cm in Windsor; there have been many winters in the past that had less snow,) it was the incredibly warm temperatures that made the winter so tame. Average temperature for DJF 2011-2012 was 0.53C, when the average for Windsor is -3.1C, almost 4C above average. The longest stretch of consecutive days with at least 2 cm of snow on the ground was 5. (Compared to 52 in 2010-2011)

Good choice. I'm repressing the memory of last winter so I didn't select it

-Although not as severe here as in much of the United States, the combined heatwave and drought of June-July will definitely be remembered. Though the drought was never very severe here, July was one of the warmest on record. Windsor also broke the 100F mark on two separate days.

For the drought out west, while it was dry, and lasted all the way until Thanksgiving, it wasn't bad at all. It was just nice to have the tap turned off for a few months. We've made up for the shortfall of rain and are in positive territory from all the rain we didn't get during the Summer until October. It rained almost 3 weeks straight after Thanksgiving giving us 300+ mm. Now we have the problem of having lots of rain and not enough dry/sunny days again as usual. The past couple days were really nice though.

The implications of the 2012 drought will be widespread and potentially long-lasting, especially if this turns into a multi-year event such as the western Canada drought of the early 2000's or (much worse) the 1930's in the USA. Drought is a gradual process and doesn't have the flashbang appeal of many other weather-related phenomena but it is amongst the most deadly and destructive, partially because it goes hand-in-hand with extreme heat. Once the evaporation of soil moisture is inhibited, drought can begin to unleash horrendous damage as the energy is then solely directed to heating the air.

I can personally attest to the agricultural damage done in the in this area and even moreso for Renfrew County to the west. In fact, a program put in place to deliver hay to the drought-stricken west in 01-02 was reversed as Eastern livestock owners received some fodder from more fortunate western farmers. Still, livelihoods will be impacted greatly and crop insurance claims will be numerous.

It's very rare to see drought affect so many regions of the country in one year. The Maritimes aren't prone to moisture shortfalls and central Canada rarely sees drought to this extent. The west has more experience with this problem but it could wind up being worse than in the past because a great deal of water is necessary in oil sands production. Fortunately the western drought happened much later in the year and thus didn't damage agriculture as badly because crops were already well-matured.

It's the situation in the US which is the crux of the problem. They supply the bulk of the world's corn supply and the drought decimated corn crops in the midwest. Corn is an ingredient in such a vast array of products that the knockdown effect of the yield reductions will likely have worldwide economic consequences. Stocks will have to be rebuilt over the next few years and weather is going to have to be much more co-operative for that to happen.

[Aylmer]

I think 'heat' is the word of the year -

-The Non-Winter of 2011-2012
-The March Heatwave: I can still remember trekking through boot-high snow in shorts and a t-shirt and still being hot. It went up to near 30-C here in Ottawa, if I'm not mistaken.

-The Drought: By early August in Ottawa, it started to look like autumn not because it was cold, but because a lot of the leaves on the trees were turning brown and dying of the heat, sun and lack of anything wet. In the Ottawa River, you could walk to the Middle in certain areas (it's a little more than a km on average) without getting your sandals wet.
-The HEAT: At some point, 30C was an OK day in terms of temperature and 25C was sweaterweather.

-A Glorious Fall: Here in eastern Ontario, almost everyone can agree that we had the most colourful, delightful and wonderful fall in living memory. It almost (ALMOST) makes up for the rest of the year. Thanks 'ma Nature!

[puttin]

I think 'heat' is the word of the year -

-The Non-Winter of 2011-2012
-The March Heatwave: I can still remember trekking through boot-high snow in shorts and a t-shirt and still being hot. It went up to near 30-C here in Ottawa, if I'm not mistaken.

-The Drought: By early August in Ottawa, it started to look like autumn not because it was cold, but because a lot of the leaves on the trees were turning brown and dying of the heat, sun and lack of anything wet. In the Ottawa River, you could walk to the Middle in certain areas (it's a little more than a km on average) without getting your sandals wet.
-The HEAT: At some point, 30C was an OK day in terms of temperature and 25C was sweaterweather.

-A Glorious Fall: Here in eastern Ontario, almost everyone can agree that we had the most colourful, delightful and wonderful fall in living memory. It almost (ALMOST) makes up for the rest of the year. Thanks 'ma Nature!

For me, I think it was when I was up at the cottage with my son and his friend and E.C. and TWN had predicted a nasty cold front that was going to interact with the very hot and humid air and they were predicting some serious thunderstorms. About 9:30 pm, a squall line crossed Lake Huron and rolled over top of the cottage in a way I've never seen clouds. They were tumbling over each other and the lightning was brutal. They had predicted tornados, possibly many and it turned out the storms continued right on down south over Newmarket. My hubby who isn't afraid of storms said it was the worst series of storms he had ever seen.... I remember watching the skies, taking pictures all day and when it hit, boy did it hit, nowhere to go in a cottage, we were just a siting duck. I think that was the end of July ish....

[bigmt]

EC's top 10 list is out now, read more in-depth at the link - http://ec.gc.ca//meteo-weather/default.asp...mp;n=0B8D6A90-1

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!

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.

3. BC Flooding...Larger, Longer and Lethal

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Removed_Member_thehammer_*]

I'm going to go with 'Heat'.

I love heat and remember telling my wife that I've had enough of it, and want cool air. It was relentless.

Also, the lack of snow for 2012, and the non-winter. Never seen anything like that before.

[stuffradio]

I don't remember record heat, except we might have had record heat on or around Thanksgiving. I do remember though, after the awfully flooded Spring/late Spring/Early Summer, we had a beautiful Summer that was fairly dry. Driest in 100 years. Then to go from driest summer in 100 years to record wet in October to December. It made up for the rain deficit from July to September. What an awesome Summer it was. The Pacific kept us from getting super hot.