Canada's Top Ten Costliest Disasters

The numbers are in, and they are staggering.

The hailstorm of August 5 that pummeled numerous communities across north Calgary will go down as the costliest on record. With over 130,000 claims amounting to nearly $2.8 billion in insured losses, damages are more than double the last significant event on June 13, 2020, thought at that time to be about as bad as it gets.

What’s more, is that the hailstorm is now the second costliest weather disaster overall in Canada, second only to the Fort McMurray wildfire in 2016.

Canada's top ten costliest disasters in 2024. Courtesy IBC.

Two other destructive events also broke into Canada’s top ten costliest disasters in 2024, including the flash floods of Toronto in mid-July and the Jasper wildfire, with both events coming in at just under a billion apiece.

By the numbers:

• 7 out of 10 Canadian disasters have caused losses of a billion dollars or more

• 5 out of 10 have occurred in Alberta

• 3 out of 10 have impacted the city of Calgary

• 8 out of 10 have occurred in the past four years

Blown out car windows in northeast Calgary in the aftermath of the June 13, 2020 hailstorm

Canada’s top ten list changes fast, with 80% of all disasters occurring just in the past four years. This follows a trend of increasing extreme weather disasters in Canada in recent decades. The degree to which a changing climate can account for this increase depends on the type of extreme weather.

According to the IPCC’s sixth assessment report, there is high confidence that fire weather (which consists of hot, dry, and windy conditions) has increased across much of western and northwestern North America in recent decades. When combined with increased fuel loads owing to a human-induced fire deficit, the stage is set for large, destructive wildfires that have already been impacting a growing number of communities from Alberta to California.

Given that portions of western and northern Canada are warming at twice the rate of the global average, it is no surprise that fire weather is increasing, as fire season lengthens and the atmosphere’s potential to dry wildland fuels increases.

The McDougall Creek wildfire glows along Okanagan Lake behind the Kelowna skyline, in August 2023.

Confidence is also high that the number of extreme precipitation events have increased in central and eastern North America, as have been seen in the Greater Toronto Area in recent years. In both the case of impactful wildfires in western Canada and extreme precipitation events in southeastern Canada, worsening trends are likely to continue with a high degree of confidence as climate change progresses in the coming years.

Just as Toronto seems to be emerging as Canada’s flash flood capital, Calgary seems to consistently be the national hot spot for destructive hail. The climate link to hailstorm occurrence is inconclusive, however, as there is low agreement as to trends in hailstorms across North America.

Another obvious factor in the increase of impactful weather events is simply that the footprint of human development is an expanding target on face of the Earth.

Damage caused by the Calgary hailstorm of June 13, 2020. Destruction to roofs, vinyl siding, windows, skylights, and vehicles is common in such events.

Climate action is typically conceived in terms of mitigation (primarily through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to slow future climate warming) and adaptation – the latter of which includes investing in disaster resiliency in the event of increasing extreme weather events.

Regardless of one’s stance on climate action, it is clear that extreme weather events are not simply a problem of the future, but are already occurring, with increased frequency and intensity, necessitating efforts to adapt now. These events have exploited the vulnerabilities of aging infrastructure and outdated building codes that, combined with rising inflation, continue to drive up the cost of insurance premiums for Canadians from coast to coast.

This is why it is important to continue the discussion on how we can improve resilience to the increasing instances of extreme weather that are making life more costly for everyone. This will require cooperation at all levels of government to allocate funding, implement community programs, and foster changes that will make infrastructure and property less at risk to loss, while also protecting human life.

Floodwaters engulf the McKenzie Meadows Golf Course in southeast Calgary during the southern Alberta floods in June 2013.

On the individual level, there are basic steps homeowners can take to protect their property in the event of wildfire, floods, hail, wind, and beyond. It behooves everyone to be weather aware, maintain a 72-hour emergency kit, and know the finer details of their insurance policy, along with what to do in the event of a disaster.

It's been said that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, which certainly rings true as the astronomical costs of damaged infrastructure and property continue to rise due to increasing extreme weather events in Canada.