Environment Canada releases the annual Top Ten Weather Stories at the end of December each year. This annual ranking of the most notable weather events was started in 1996 and is compiled by David Phillips, Senior Climatologist and Canada's foremost weather guru. The summary takes a look back at the weather stories that made headlines and broke records across the country. The top stories are selected by David Phillips based on such factors as the severity of the event, the impact it had on Canadians, the extent of the area that was affected, and the economic repercussions.
In the year 2000, a special version of the “Top Ten” was issued --The Top Weather Stories of the Century- a look back on the most notable Canadian weather events of the past 100 years. A special selection process was used to choose the events of the century. Approximately three thousand Canadians logged on to Environment Canada's Green Lane to cast their votes on the top weather stories. The devastating ice storm which struck Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec in 1998 was ranked as the most notable weather story of the century; followed by the severe drought of the 1930s, which turned the prairies into a dust bowl. In third place was the world's worst iceberg accident-- the sinking of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland in 1912. The most deadly weather event was the heat wave of 1936 that claimed the lives of 1,180 Canadians, and the oldest weather record noted was the Rogers Pass Avalanche of 1910 that claimed 52 lives.
The Green LaneTM,
Environment Canada's World Wide Web Site.