Welcome to summer.
This year, southern Ontario will experience a slightly cooler summer than 2012, thanks to a supply of quick-moving fronts, which are also the cause of precipitation. Also, western Canada has recently been hit by a string of floods. It started on June 13, 2013, when the mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo declared Fort McMurray under a state of emergency on due to flooding of the Hangingstone River, and potential flooding of the Clearwater River due to heavy rainfall. A 69-unit trailer park, 60 campers, and a 400-resident subdivision in the south of Fort McMurray were evacuated.
An RCMP unit was called in to staff roadblocks and prevent looting during the flood. Sandbags were used to line the eroding Hangingstone River to prevent sloughing of the banks into the river. Residents of Fort McMurray were allowed to return home the following Saturday. Yet exactly a week later, on the morning of Thursday, June 20th, Calgary and over two dozen other nearby communities declared a state of emergency after torrential rains caused the Bow and Elbow rivers to swell 5 to 10 times their normal flow rate, and fill the streets with muddy water. The RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces were called in to help sandbag the rivers and evacuate people by helicopter. Over 100,000 people were evacuated until the waters recede. The Calgary Zoo was also closed. In flooded hospitals, patients and staff have had to retreat to higher floors. Meanwhile, the water rose beyond the 10th row of seats at the Scotiabank Saddledome stadium both where the Calgary Flames play and where much of the world famous Calgary Stampede occurs – incidentally, the Stampede is on July 5. Like Fort McMurray residents, Calgary residents have stated that this is the worst flood they’d ever seen. West of Calgary in Canmore, entire homes have been washed away as Cougar Creek eroded its banks. The County of Lethbridge, which is located in the Oldman River Basin, also experienced flooding, which caused the Lethbridge sewage plant to dump raw sewage into the Oldman river. Residents have been evacuated.
Meanwhile, Medicine Hat in south Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan have been bracing for spillover. Edmonton, located in the North Saskatchewan Basin, expects river levels to rise by at least 3m. The flooding was caused by a large high pressure system held in place by the jetstream. Normally it would have caused just a simple spring storm west of Calgary, but it pulled moisture from Saskatchewan, the United States, and the Gulf of Mexico as it moved east from the Pacific, causing many areas to get as much rain in 18 hours as they normally might receive during the entire summer. In the winter, some of that moisture might be released as snow in over the Rocky Mountains, but the warm weather caused the precipitation to manifest as rain, increasing the flow in the rivers with tributaries in the mountains
While some readers might shiver at the thought of going to western Canada, many co-op students have or formerly held positions in Fort McMurray, while others hail from Wild Rose Country. For the rest of us, it may come as a surprise that most cities have an emergency management plan in case of large-scale emergencies, including regional evacuations, mass fatalities, and natural disasters. That includes the Region of Waterloo, whose emergency protocol can be accessed at wrem.ca.
Anyways it’s unlikely that the Grand River will flood this summer. Enjoy the warm weather!
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