Western Canada will continue to be more affected than the rest of the country by forest fires for the rest of the season, according to forecasts released Monday by Ottawa, while the East, including Quebec, is more likely to face new storms caused by hurricane remnants.
Environment Canada’s Meteorological Service Director, Sébastien Chouinard, said between 17 and 24 tropical systems are expected this year and four to seven major hurricanes are expected. The average is more like 14 tropical systems and three major hurricanes per season.
Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan expects “Ontario and Quebec to see more impacts from hurricanes in the future.” In a press briefing, he noted that “normally” in hurricane cases, attention is also focused on the Atlantic provinces.
Over the past few days, the remains of the hurricane Debby brought heavy rainfall to eastern parts of the country, including major power outages and road flooding in Quebec.
“Precipitation associated with the remains of [la tempête] Beryl had also caused several floods in the same regions at the beginning of July,” recalled Mr. Chouinard.
This was before the peak of hurricane season, which is typically August through October.
Minister Sajjan said he was “alarmed” by the phenomenon of “flash floods” (” flash flooding “You’ve seen that it happens very quickly, sometimes in the space of a few hours where the rain floods the infrastructure. So that’s something we’re going to have to pay a little more attention to,” he said, adding that this had to be done in collaboration with the provinces.
In terms of forest fires, Quebec was mainly affected at the beginning of the summer, but the flames and risk areas are currently concentrated mainly in Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, officials told journalists.
While the area burned across the country this year is historically significant, it is less than in 2023, which was marked by records.
“We must understand that last year was a completely exceptional year, the most exceptional in at least a hundred years in Quebec. So the comparison is often difficult,” said Yan Boulanger, a researcher for Natural Resources Canada.
As of Monday, there were 474 active fires burning across the country. Last year, there were more than 900 at the same time.