Cumulonimbus cloud over Sherwood Park AB. Photo by Jon Tupper
OTTAWA — Canada endured one of its most punishing weather years on record in 2025, marked by massive wildfires, widespread drought, destructive storms and record-breaking heat, according to meteorologists who reviewed the year’s most impactful events.
Weather experts say the scale, frequency and severity of extreme events in 2025 underscored the growing effects of climate change and highlighted the need for preparedness as communities across the country faced repeated disruptions.
The most consequential story of the year was Canada’s second-worst wildfire season on record. Fires burned about 8.9 million hectares, an area larger than New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island combined. Nearly half of the burned area was in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where some fires grew so large they merged. More than 75,000 people were forced from their homes, with at least three out of five evacuees coming from First Nations communities. Two people were killed in Manitoba. Only the unprecedented 2023 season saw more land burned.
Wildfire activity began early, flaring in Alberta and British Columbia by late April amid hot, dry and windy conditions following a winter with limited snowpack. Fires also erupted in Newfoundland in early May, including one near Adam’s Cove that destroyed 45 structures and forced hundreds to flee. By mid-May, record-breaking heat in southern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario drove rapid fire growth near the provincial border, killing two people near Lac du Bonnet.
By late May, explosive fire growth stretched from northeastern British Columbia to Manitoba. Entire communities, including Swan Hills, Alta., and Flin Flon, Man., were evacuated, while Saskatchewan and Alberta declared month-long states of emergency. The Canadian Armed Forces were deployed to assist with firefighting and evacuations, particularly in remote areas. Fires continued into summer and fall, with renewed evacuations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia, and smoke degrading air quality across much of Canada and parts of the United States.
Closely tied to the wildfire crisis was a deep and widespread drought that gripped much of the country. By the end of September, about 85 per cent of Canada was abnormally dry or in drought, including roughly 76 per cent of agricultural land. Parts of British Columbia, the Prairies, eastern Ontario, southern Quebec, Atlantic Canada and the North saw less than half their usual summer rainfall.
The drought strained water supplies, reduced crop yields and worsened wildfire conditions. In northeastern British Columbia, officials in Dawson Creek warned in September that only about 150 days of stored water remained. In eastern Ontario, water levels in the St. Lawrence River fell so low that boats were stranded, while some farm yields dropped sharply. In Atlantic Canada, record-dry summers led to water restrictions, wells running dry and fire bans, with residents celebrating even brief hints of rain.
Severe storms also left their mark. In late June, a powerful thunderstorm system swept across central and eastern Ontario, toppling countless trees, knocking out power and killing two people at separate campgrounds. Investigators determined the destruction was caused by downbursts, with wind gusts estimated as high as 190 km/h in some areas. Campers in provincial parks were injured, evacuated or airlifted to safety after roads were washed out and trees crushed tents and trailers.
Extreme heat early in the season intensified wildfire conditions in Manitoba in May, when temperatures soared above 35 C for several days. Winnipeg recorded its second-hottest May day on record, while fires in southeastern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario forced evacuations and destroyed dozens of structures.
Winter weather was equally disruptive. A prolonged ice storm from March 28 to 31 coated Ontario and Quebec in freezing rain, snapping power poles, downing trees and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity. Ice accumulations reached up to 25 millimetres in some communities, prompting states of emergency and opening warming centres as homes grew dangerously cold. Ontario’s main utility called it the province’s worst ice storm since 1998.
Heavy snow also defined the year, with a series of powerful storms in February burying parts of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, followed by an unusually early and disruptive snowfall in November. Montreal recorded its snowiest four-day period on record in February, while November snow knocked out power to nearly 400,000 customers in Quebec.
The Prairies saw one of their most damaging severe weather days in recent memory on Aug. 20, when intense thunderstorms brought giant hail, destructive winds, flooding rain and a tornado across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Wind gusts near Brooks, Alta., were estimated at up to 165 km/h, flattening crops, damaging homes and collapsing transmission towers.
In the North, an intense Arctic storm surge flooded the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk in late August, pushing ocean water to record levels and damaging homes, roads and critical infrastructure. Officials said shoreline protection work helped limit what could have been far worse damage.
Atlantic Canada’s most powerful storm of the year was not a hurricane but a rapidly intensifying November system that struck Newfoundland with record-low pressure and wind gusts exceeding 170 km/h. The storm caused widespread power outages, coastal flooding and infrastructure damage, rivaling the impact of major tropical systems.
Rounding out the year was a late-summer heat wave in western Canada that shattered more than 200 daily temperature records across British Columbia and Yukon. Lytton reached 40 C or higher for four straight days, while Ashcroft set a new all-time September temperature record for Canada at 40.8 C. The heat worsened drought and wildfire conditions, even as parts of the Prairies and northern Ontario experienced unusually early frosts.
Meteorologists say taken together, the top weather stories of 2025 paint a clear picture of a country increasingly challenged by extreme and often overlapping climate hazards, with communities repeatedly tested by fire, flood, heat, cold and storms.
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