Year in review: 5 weather records broken in Canada
Let's take a look at some of Canada's top weather stories of the year.
2024 was a blockbuster for weather records, with long-standing benchmarks falling like dominoes.
Here are five that were set in Canada this year.
1. Wettest year in Toronto
It was the wettest year ever in Toronto, breaking an all-time yearly precipitation record with more than 1050 mm of rain inundating the city.
Nearly half of that fell during torrential downpours during Toronto's rainiest summer on record.
On July 16, the rain brought widespread floods to Toronto, causing rivers to breach and highways to close.
An honourable mention goes to Montreal, which saw its wettest day ever on August 9, 2024. The city recorded 158 mm of rain that day when remnants of tropical storm Debby moved through.
2. Heat in western Canada
Both Edmonton and Calgary, Alta had their hottest Julys on record this year, and Soyuz, B.C. had the longest 35-degree heat streak in Canada, at 18 days.
The heat came courtesy of the same atmospheric pattern that saw areas north of the Arctic Circle reach all-time highs of 35°C.
3. Rain in eastern Canada
June and November were wet and gloomy months on the Avalon.
A parade of low-pressure systems helped earn the rainiest ever in St John's, NL the title of rainiest month ever.
More than 200 millimetres came down in June, smashing a record from the late 1800s. Then, in November, 326 millimetres fell, setting a new monthly record.
4. Warm winter in Great Lakes region
The winter months of 2024 were particularly toasty around the Great Lakes, so much so that record low ice coverage was recorded in February. Just under 3 per cent of the lakes were frozen by mid-February, which coincided with the warmest winter ever recorded in Toronto.
5. Major snowfall in Nova Scotia
Warmth wasn't the issue in Nova Scotia in early February 2024.
That was when a giant snowstorm hit the region, giving Sydney, Nova Scotia its largest two and three-day snowfall events on record, with a whopping 95 centimetres recorded on the ground.
Header image: Cheryl Santa Maria.