HALIFAX, JUNE 30, 2004 - Environment Canada has designated July 5-9th as Severe Summer Weather Awareness Week in the Atlantic provinces to remind people about the potential dangers associated with severe summer storms and other extreme summer factors.

“This year Atlantic Canadians are probably more eager than ever to embrace summer weather conditions,” says Bill Appleby, Atlantic Regional Director of the Meteorological Service of Canada. “But it's important to remember that being aware of rapidly changing weather and knowing what to do during an extreme weather event helps to save lives and protect personal property.”

Each year, Canadians are killed or severely injured and personal property is damaged or destroyed because people are ill prepared to deal with the effects of severe summer conditions. Severe thunderstorms, for example, are often accompanied by frequent and intense lightning, heavy downpours, damaging hail, and even tornadoes. According to the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at the University of Western Ontario, in 1998 alone, 28 Canadians died because of severe weather. Also governments and insurers paid over $3 billion in claims due to natural disasters in the same period

The good news is that people can take concrete and fairly simple steps to help protect themselves and their loved ones, ensuring that everyone enjoys a safe summer.

“While changing the actual weather is beyond our control, we definitely can control what we do to prepare for it and minimize the risk of injury or property damage,” says Appleby. “Natural hazards don't have to become natural disasters if we have taken the right steps to prepare.”

For the seventh consecutive year experts around the world are predicting an above-normal number of tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical storms can develop into hurricanes. Anytime there is a prediction of increased activity in the Atlantic, it means that there's a greater chance that one or more of these storms will make their way northwards and affect Canada.

Last year Canadians experienced the worst year for hurricanes since 1959. During a three week period last September, Hurricane Fabian streaked through the Grand Banks killing three mariners, Tropical Storm Isabel caused one traffic fatality as it weakened over Ontario, and Hurricane Juan claimed a total of eight lives as it entered the records books as the most widely destructive Atlantic Canadian hurricane in more than 100 years.

Peter Bowyer, Manager of Environment Canada's Canadian Hurricane Centre says that the importance of awareness in minimizing the risk from hurricanes became very clear last September. “Despite the more than two days notice that Hurricane Juan would make landfall in Nova Scotia, many people didn't take the warnings seriously,” he says. “As a result, very few people were prepared for the record-level winds and storm surge that accompanied Hurricane Juan as it ripped through Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, leaving severe damage in its wake.”

In addition to thunderstorms and hurricanes, other summer conditions typically of concern in the Atlantic provinces during the summer months include: poor air quality or smog events, elevated ultra-violet (UV) levels, and elevated Humidex values (high humidity conditions coupled with high temperatures).

To equip Atlantic Canadians with the tools to protect themselves, their families and their property, Environment Canada has updated its Severe Weather Web site which may be accessed at: http://www.atl.ec.gc.ca/weather/severe. The site includes an on-line quiz that invites visitors to have fun while learning about severe weather.

The following Environment Canada subject specialists are available to discuss severe weather topics the week.