How current climate change trends are impacting severe weather in Saskatchewan
Global News
Climate change is the biggest emergency of our time and it's wreaking havoc on the globe.
As the ample amount of evidence spells out, there’s no scientific contention that climate change is to blame for the severe weather patterns Saskatchewan, Canada and the rest of the world are experiencing. It’s one of the biggest emergencies of our time and it’s wreaking havoc on the globe.
“The United States has massive areas under heat warnings with exceptional heat that put people at risk and over 1,000 people have died recently in Europe from the heat,” explained John Pomeroy with the University of Saskatchewan, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change.
“So, when you look at all of that and think that Saskatchewan is getting on light with few storms, but our storms have been very severe because of the extra energy in the atmosphere,” he added.
Pomeroy further explains how the province is being impacted.
“Saskatchewan unfortunately has seen all of the manifestations of climate change and we sort of fluctuate from drought to flood to storm within a year, or year to year, and that’s been happening more frequently to a greater degree,” he stated.
“As well as the storms we’re getting last longer, the wet periods last longer and the dry periods last longer.”
Pomeroy said the number of long storms in Saskatchewan increased by 50 per cent since the 1960s.
Recently, insured losses are amounting between $2 to 5 billion in Canada each year. In the 1980s, that amount was around a quarter of a billion dollars per year, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.