Severe weather top of mind as Calgary faces growing list of high-risk hazards and threats
Natural disasters, infrastructure failure among most urgent concerns
Extreme temperatures, natural disasters and other severe weather conditions top the City of Calgary's disaster management priority list, while water distribution infrastructure failure has become a higher-risk threat in light of last year's water main break.
An annual disaster risk assessment was presented to the city's emergency management committee by the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) on Wednesday. The report indicates 66 hazards and threats of varying priority levels that Calgary is at risk of. It's the same number as last year's assessment, but the number of high-risk hazards and threats has risen from 16 to 19.
Extreme heat is new to the city's high-risk disaster list, joining extreme cold among the most pressing natural hazards.
"We know that there's a shift in the climate," said Coby Duerr, deputy chief of CEMA.
Duerr highlighted increasing temperatures in Calgary over the last few years, as well as wildfires across Alberta due to hot and dry weather conditions.
Water distribution infrastructure failure was also newly upgraded to high-risk status, largely due to last June's Bearspaw south feeder main break, a situation that led the city to declare a state of local emergency.
The CEMA's list of possible human-induced hazards and threats is topped by active assailants, cyber attacks targeting critical services and infrastructure, mass attacks, mass gathering incidents, and illegal protests or demonstrations.
The highest-risk technological threats are critical or water distribution infrastructure failure, dam breaches of the Bow or Elbow River, and rail incidents.
Extreme temperatures, flooding of the Bow or Elbow River, heavy rainfall, a pandemic, tornadoes and winter storms comprise the list of high-risk natural hazards and threats.
Severe weather sparks concern
Severe spring and summer weather events are of particular concern for the city, including tornadoes, heavy rainfall, hailstorms, extreme wind and thunderstorms.
Last year was the most expensive year in the country's history for losses stemming from severe weather, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. An August 2024 hailstorm in Calgary resulted in $3 billion in insured losses.
"I think that when we look at it from a climate change perspective, we see that there's a shift, that we see more complex events happening," said Duerr.
"That is happening across our country, and especially in Alberta, as one of those disaster capitals of Canada."
Alberta is a hotspot for tornadoes, which happen 12 to 15 times per year on average, said warning preparedness meteorologist Alysa Pederson during the presentation.
The most recent significant tornado in the province occurred in 2023 in Mountain View County, roughly an hour north of Calgary, when a massive tornado damaged 12 homes between the towns of Carstairs and Didsbury, with maximum wind speeds clocked at 275 kilometres per hour.
"Storms are increasing in their complexity," said Duerr. "We know that the ability for the City of Calgary to maintain that infrastructure is key."
While only four tornado warnings have been put in place in Calgary since 2015, it's important for the city to prepare for the worst-case scenario when it comes to natural disasters, said Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott.
"If it's happening in Alberta, it can happen [in Calgary] … just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't," he said.
Walcott pointed to the construction of the Sunnyside flood barrier, an ongoing $50-million project to keep flooding away from Calgary's Hillhurst and Sunnyside communities, as an example of the city's commitment to disaster management.
"You don't invest after the crisis, you invest before," he said.
Climate change an underlying cause for storm frequency, severity
More needs to be done to combat climate change, Walcott said. CEMA indicated climate change is among the underlying causes of the increasing frequency and severity of storms, citing Yale School of the Environment data indicating that severe storms across the world have increased by 40 per cent over the last two decades.
"I think one of the worst parts of this conversation is that we're still kind of in denial about the costs and associations of climate change," said Walcott.
"We're seeing these impacts daily, we're seeing the costs associated with them. They're trickling down in everything from insurance to how you actually build houses to where you choose to live" he said.
Duerr stressed Calgarians need to do their part to mitigate the effects of natural hazards, particularly by keeping their property well-prepared for weather events and ensuring their insurance policies offer ample coverage.
"The city is prepared and ready to respond to those risks that occur," he said. "But it's not just the city's responsibility, it's everybody's responsibility to be ready."
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With files from Brendan Coulter and Karina Zapata