Environment Canada has released its Top 10 list
Environment Canada has released its' annual list of the Top 10 weather stories of the year.
Smoke and heat highlight the list for 2018.
Senior Climatologist David Phillips calls the year "a smorgasbord of everything that could go wrong."
He puts the hot, dry months that fed wildfires in British Columbia and blanketed cities across the Prairies in choking smoke at the top of his weather list.
"Calgary had nearly 40 times as much smoke as normal," Phillips says, "and smoke was detected as far away as Europe."
Coming in second on the list was the summer heat across the country. Temperature records fell, 93 people died in Quebec and the mercury hit more than 42C in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Phillips also notes that spring and fall almost disappeared. Canada went from its coldest April on record to its hottest May.
Then, just as farmers were getting ready to harvest, more than 30cm of snow fell across much of the Prairies.
"Weather used to be predictable, hot in summer, cold in winter, but now it's anything but" says Phillips.
Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Top 10 Weather Stories of 2018:
Record wildfires and smoky skiesCanada affected by global summer heat waveHot and dry to snow-filled skies blunt the Prairie harvestPowerful May winds cost $1 billionOttawa-Gatineau tornadoes on summer’s last daySpring flooding throughout southern British ColumbiaFlash flooding of the Saint John RiverToronto’s August delugeRecord cold start to a long winterA cruel, cold, and stormy April
— With files from the Canadian Press