Everywhere you look there are all sorts of wrap-ups for 2021. From music to photo memories we’ve seen it all. But how about Environment Canada’s list of top weather events for 2021? This year, to the surprise of no one, BC took the cake on that front.

Out of 10 different weather stories for 2021, BC was mentioned 5 times. From heat to flooding to wildfires, it’s pretty safe to say that BC saw it all. So let’s take a look at what made BC such a bizarre province to live in (weather-wise) this year.

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To start things off there was the heatwave which saw parts of BC almost turning into Death Valley this summer. Most notably Lytton‘s near 50 °C temperatures, they set a new Canadian record high temperature of 49.6 °C on June 29. Which by the way, is almost 24 °C higher than normal and 90% of Lytton burnt to the ground the next day. This was big enough to be mentioned alongside the other 4 heatwaves the country saw this summer.

Those same heatwaves played a role in the dryness seen across the nation. BC’s Lower Mainland and Interior had one of their driest summers in 75 years. Many places across the country all reported less than half their normal rainfall during the growing season.

Now you need some water to cool down right? The 7 atmospheric rivers and 3 weather bombs in November might have been a bit much. They created a flood of floods, which The Government of Canada described as “quite likely the most destructive and expensive weather disaster in Canadian history.”

This leads us to the last of the events, the wildfires. They certainly were raging in 2021 as they started about a month early and totalled at 1522 fires. Those fires “scorched 889,813 hectares of timber, bush, and grassland – an area 1.5 times that of Prince Edward Island, almost 60 times the area burned in 2020, and the third most ever.”

The Government of Canada also threw in these highlights for BC for old times’ sake

  • BC’s first winter storms
  • Cold and record snows just days before Valentines
  • March windstorm leads to power outages
  • Flooding in the midst of coming drought
  • September rains, rains, and more rains
  • Pacific weather bombs – among the most powerful ever
  • Rare Vancouver tornado

Want to check out the full list? You can do that here.

Curiocity Staff

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