Severe weather top of mind as Calgary faces growing list of high-risk hazards and threats

Amir Said · CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 9:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

Extreme temperatures, earthy disasters and different terrible upwind conditions apical the City of Calgary's catastrophe absorption precedence list, portion h2o organisation infrastructure nonaccomplishment has go a higher-risk menace successful airy of past year's h2o main break.

An yearly catastrophe hazard appraisal was presented to the city's exigency absorption committee by the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) connected Wednesday. The study indicates 66 hazards and threats of varying precedence levels that Calgary is astatine hazard of. It's the aforesaid fig arsenic past year's assessment, but the fig of high-risk hazards and threats has risen from 16 to 19.

Extreme vigor is caller to the city's high-risk catastrophe list, joining utmost acold among the astir pressing earthy hazards.

"We cognize that there's a displacement successful the climate," said Coby Duerr, lawman main of CEMA.

Duerr highlighted expanding temperatures successful Calgary implicit the past fewer years, arsenic good arsenic wildfires crossed Alberta owed to blistery and adust upwind conditions.

Water organisation infrastructure nonaccomplishment was besides recently upgraded to high-risk status, mostly owed to past June's Bearspaw southbound feeder main break, a concern that led the metropolis to state a authorities of section emergency.

The CEMA's database of imaginable human-induced hazards and threats is topped by progressive assailants, cyber attacks targeting captious services and infrastructure, wide attacks, wide gathering incidents, and amerciable protests oregon demonstrations.

The highest-risk technological threats are captious oregon h2o distribution infrastructure failure, dam breaches of the Bow oregon Elbow River, and obstruction incidents.

Extreme temperatures, flooding of the Bow oregon Elbow River, dense rainfall, a pandemic, tornadoes and wintertime storms comprise the database of high-risk earthy hazards and threats.

Severe upwind sparks concern

Severe outpouring and summertime upwind events are of peculiar interest for the city, including tornadoes, dense rainfall, hailstorms, utmost upwind and thunderstorms.

Last twelvemonth was the astir costly twelvemonth successful the country's past for losses stemming from terrible weather, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. An August 2024 hailstorm successful Calgary resulted successful $3 cardinal successful insured losses.

"I deliberation that erstwhile we look astatine it from a clime alteration perspective, we spot that there's a shift, that we spot much analyzable events happening," said Duerr.

"That is happening crossed our country, and particularly successful Alberta, arsenic 1 of those catastrophe capitals of Canada."

Alberta is simply a hotspot for tornadoes, which hap 12 to 15 times per twelvemonth connected average, said informing preparedness meteorologist Alysa Pederson during the presentation. 

The astir caller important tornado successful the state occurred in 2023 successful Mountain View County, astir an hr northbound of Calgary, erstwhile a monolithic tornado damaged 12 homes betwixt the towns of Carstairs and Didsbury, with maximum upwind speeds clocked astatine 275 kilometres per hour.

"Storms are expanding successful their complexity," said Duerr. "We cognize that the quality for the City of Calgary to support that infrastructure is key."

While lone 4 tornado warnings person been enactment successful spot successful Calgary since 2015, it's important for the metropolis to prepare for the worst-case script erstwhile it comes to earthy disasters, said Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott.

"If it's happening successful Alberta, it tin hap [in Calgary] … conscionable due to the fact that it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't," helium said.

Walcott pointed to the operation of the Sunnyside flood barrier, an ongoing $50-million task to support flooding distant from Calgary's Hillhurst and Sunnyside communities, arsenic an illustration of the city's committedness to catastrophe management.

"You don't put aft the crisis, you put before," helium said.

Climate alteration an underlying origin for tempest frequency, severity

More needs to beryllium done to combat clime change, Walcott said. CEMA indicated clime alteration is among the underlying causes of the expanding frequence and severity of storms, citing Yale School of the Environment information indicating that terrible storms crossed the satellite person accrued by 40 per cent implicit the past 2 decades.

"I deliberation 1 of the worst parts of this speech is that we're inactive benignant of successful denial astir the costs and associations of clime change," said Walcott.

"We're seeing these impacts daily, we're seeing the costs associated with them. They're trickling down successful everything from security to however you really physique houses to wherever you take to live" helium said. 

Duerr stressed Calgarians need to bash their portion to mitigate the effects of earthy hazards, peculiarly by keeping their spot well-prepared for upwind events and ensuring their security policies connection ample coverage.

"The metropolis is prepared and acceptable to respond to those risks that occur," helium said. "But it's not conscionable the city's responsibility, it's everybody's work to beryllium ready."