Prairies flooding tops Environment Canada’s list of severe weather stories in 2011

Flooding in Western Canada topped Environment Canada’s list of ‘Top 10 Weather Stories for 2011,’ one step above the devastating wildfire in Slave Lake, Alberta.
Overall, severe weather accounted for almost $1.5 billion worth of insurance claims payouts and adjustment expenses, the Globe and Mail reports, citing the Insurance Bureau of Canada. That’s the second-highest total of insured damages related to severe weather events since the 1998 Ice Storm that blanketed eastern Ontario and Quebec.
The wildfire that destroyed one-third of the Alberta town of Slave Lake in May 2011 resulted in insured damages of about $700 million, currently the second-costliest insured disaster in Canadian history. But Environment Canada placed the Slave Lake second to what it termed “the flood that would never end.”
“Statistically, the flooding on the Assiniboine River in 2011 was estimated to be at levels experienced once in 330 years,” Environment Canada noted of the flooding, which lasted from October 2010 until late July, and then resumed in Manitoba and Saskatchewan during the summer months of 2011. “And on Lake Manitoba, engineers called the flood a one-in-2,000-year event. Governments at all levels spent close to $1 billion on flood fighting and victim compensation.”
Canadian property and casualty insurers do not cover damage to personal lines home properties resulting from overland floods. Commercial lines policies might cover such damage, depending upon the policy wording.
The rest of Environment Canada’s Top 10 weather stories are as follows:

•3. Richelieu Flooding: “The Richelieu flood was arguably the worst overland flooding in southern Quebec this century,” Environment Canada notes. “Hundreds of roads were damaged, parts of the shoreline were swept away, and thousands of hectares of farmland were submerged. Fish swam where grain should have been growing.”
•4. Flooded Farmland near Weyburn, Saskatchewan in April.
•5. Tornado in Goderich, Ontario: “Damage to Goderich Ontario, after a Fujita Scale 3 tornado with winds between 250 and 320 km/h struck the town in July 2011.”
•6. Good Night, Irene…and Katia, Maria and Ophelia: “Nineteen tropical storms formed in the Atlantic basin – well above the long-term average of 11,” Environment Canada said. “Only six became full-blown hurricanes, with three logged as major at Category 3 or higher: Irene, Katia and Ophelia.
•7. Dry Summer: “On the first day of summer, temperatures were on the rise from Saskatchewan to Quebec, blanketing millions of Canadians in warmth and sunshine. But for those on the West and East Coasts, it was a different story altogether: they endured cool temperatures, endless rain and overcast or foggy skies.
•8. Arctic Sea Ice near Record Low: “According to Environment Canada and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado, sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to its second-lowest extent on record in September 2011,” Environment Canada said. “The near-record ice melt was surprising owing to the absence of the unusual warm weather and oceanic conditions that contributed to the super melt in 2007.”
•9. Groundhog Day Snow Storm in Quebec and Atlantic Canada
•10. Wicked Winds from the West: “During the last week of November, some of the most powerful winds ever recorded in the area ripped across southern Alberta, including Calgary, inflicting millions of dollars in property damages,” Environment Canada said. IBC estimated insured damages from that storm to be $200 million.