Experts are worried that more and more severe weather events are occurring in Montreal, which suggests that things are only going to get worse for the city.
On Tuesday, a microburst (a “very intense downdraft of air that brings with it strong, fast winds that push outward when they reach the ground,” as defined by Environment Canada) hit Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, and left in its wake a trail of damaged cars, homes, and trees. The winds reached 120 kmh.
In April and May, parts of Montreal saw large-scale flooding. As of August 23, the city had handled 1,069 claims for financial compensation, with a current payout total of $8,824,591.
According to McGill University Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences research associate and course lecturer Eyad Atallah, microbursts – which can be found in particularly strong thunderstorms – are not necessarily the products of climate change.
“While climate change is contributing to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, it’s unclear that it’s actually contributing to how unstable the atmosphere is,” Atallah told Montreal Gazette.
“There’s nothing observationally to suggest as of yet that we’ve seen any significant changes in the behaviour of severe thunderstorms.”
Flooding, however, is something that climate change could induce. The heavy rainfall that affected Montreal months ago was caused by slow-moving low-pressure systems, along with abnormally warm weather that led to intense snowmelt, Atallah explained.
“Both of those things are more likely to occur more often in the context of global warming,” he added.
Atallah believes Montreal should be bracing for more flooding events.
“If you look at most of the literature, the expectation is that flooding in general will increase around the world, and I don’t see any reason to think this kind of thing would not become more frequent,” he said.
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