Hurricane Fiona shows how climate change is fuelling severe weather events in Canada: expert
Global NewsSep 23, 2022
Canada mobilized its military on Sunday in response to Hurricane Fiona's impact on the country's Atlantic provinces. Hundreds of thousands lost power as homes were damaged and destroyed across Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Quebec.
The deployed troops will support restoring power links, removing fallen trees, and other response missions. The storm has reportedly left at least one dead in Canada and five in the Caribbean.
While three-to-four named storms can enter Canadian waters each hurricane season, Fiona's intensity and track were unusual. Unfortunately, these impacts are expected as Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. With Arctic warming — rather than tropical warming — likely to continue, severe storms like Fiona will be more likely in Canada in the years ahead.
While there's a great deal of speculation about Arctic warming causing weather patterns that can fling hurricanes inland, the links are not straightforward. There is no clear consensus yet of what the definition of these "blocking patterns" even are, much less if Arctic warming even has an effect. Much more needs to be done to understand the complex physics involved before jumping to conclusions about specific storms.
There is a 48% chance that New York City will experience a hurricane by 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.