Rising concerns on extreme weather in the Maritimes

HALIFAX -

With heavy rain in the forecast, there are rising concerns that extreme weather is becoming all too common.

Experts say our recent weather woes are related to global warming, a term that was used for the first time by a scientist on August 8, 1975.

In the Halifax-area, Carol Bernardo is living in a hotel after her basement apartment flooded Saturday.

“The landlord now has to rip up the floor and walls, and you know, make sure there’s no mold,” she explains.

In July, record breaking storms claimed four lives in rushing flood waters in Nova Scotia and caused extensive damage.

This past weekend’s deluge, the second in two weeks, caused more flash flooding, with additional rain coming this week.

“It worries me for other people, cause then they gotta deal with more flooding,” adds Bernardo.

Water took over parts of Main Road in Eastern Passage, N.S. on Saturday.  It’s a sight the area’s city councillor has never seen before.

“We consistently talk about infrastructure renewal, but could we predict some of these situations? No. But now we have to, we have to think about what happens ‘if,’” says Halifax Councillor Becky Kent.

For experts in the field, climate change is no longer a prediction made decades ago, rather, it’s a present day reality.

“We have climate change ‘baked in,’ sometimes people say, we’re going to see at least a few more decades of climate change just because of the emissions that we’ve already put into the atmosphere,” explained Ryan Ness of the Canadian Climate Institute.

“What we’re seeing is actually no surprise to us in the science community,” adds Dr. Tricia Stadnyk, Hydrologic Modelling Canada Research Chair from the University of Calgary. “And it has everything to do with warming temperatures and the warming ocean waters that we’re seeing this year.”

Flood modelling expert, Dr. Stadnyk, says the time to adapt is now.

“Any cost and investment in climate readiness is far outweighed in terms of the cost of rebuilding all the time,” explains Dr. Stadnyk.

Experts like Dr. Stadnyk say what needed now, and into the future, is emergency preparedness and climate resiliency, to weather what’s ahead.

In addition, experts add it’s not too late for individuals and governments to act to reduce carbon emissions to make a difference.

And work is also underway on new developments, for example, flood modelling, to better predict the effects of extreme weather.