EXTREME WEATHER

From freezing rain precipitating the second largest number of insurance claims in global history to heat so extreme it baked fruit on trees, CBC News presents a two-part documentary Extreme Weather.

Canada has some of the most extreme weather on earth. Using dramatic archival footage, original shooting and home video, Extreme Weather looks at Canada's worst weather disasters of the last century and tells the gripping stories of people whose lives were forever changed by them. In "Wind and Water", viewers meet a family rescued from their roof during Hurricane Hazel. They are reunited for the first time since 1954 with the officer who saved them. Other Canadians remember the toll that Canadian weather has taken on their communities.

Extreme Weather reveals some of Canada's worst weather events in history, including:

• Ocean Ranger Storm - February 15, 1982 - The Ocean Ranger capsized and all 84 crewmen perished. It remains the worst marine disaster since World War II.
• Red River Flood 1997 - The highest recorded water level this century - 12 metres above winter levels
• Hurricane Juan September 29, 2003 - The storm started near Bermuda but still had winds of 158 km. an hour when it hit Nova Scotia and PEI. Over 100 million trees were destroyed.
• Hurricane Hazel - October 15, 1954 - Eighty-one people died and 4,000 families were left homeless. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of Ontario.

Extreme Weather is produced and directed by Jane Mingay for CBC Retro Productions headed by Maria Mironowicz.