For the second consecutive year, Canada's top weather story was about the disappointing summer.

Overall, seasons were out of whack across the country, with records or near records in every region, Environment Canada said Wednesday as it announced the Top 10 weather stories of 2009.

In 2008, the soaker of a summer included record wet conditions in Ontario and Quebec. In 2009, it was Atlantic Canada that had the wettest summer ever, with 42 per cent more precipitation than normal.

Environment Canada said it was uncomfortably cold in Central Canada, thanks largely to a stubborn, warped jet stream that pulled cold air south to the border with the U.S., away from its normal flow east across the Northwest Territories.

The year also saw one of the wettest periods in a single day in Canadian history — over 100 mm of rain in 90 minutes in Hamilton on July 26.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin had its sixth wettest and 12th coldest summer in 62 years. On the other hand, the High Arctic experienced its warmest summer — 1.8 degrees C above normal.

The Pacific coast had its third warmest and third driest summer.

From December through August, the region was the driest in 62 years of records, 24 per cent below normal.

One of the 2009 wildfires was the Tyaughton Lake fire, near Lillooet, in the B.C. Interior. (CBC)Similarly, in the B.C. Interior, nine of the past 10 years were drier than normal and eight were warmer. Beginning in late spring, soaring temperatures created ideal conditions for wildfires.

The cost of fighting B.C. wildfires approached $400 million, the agency said.

Environment Canada summed up the top weather story of 2009 with this headline: "Summer of Our Discontent — Too Much Heat in the Far West, Not Enough for All the Rest."

Sun escapes Montreal

"Sometimes, the weather was a marvel of contrasts, with some areas experiencing their wettest and driest periods in the same year," the agency said.

Montreal set a record for the least number of hours of sunshine ever recorded for July — 212.5 hours — easily smashing the record of 230.8 hours.

In the Prairies, the top headline was about winter-like weather that refused to end and the region's second-coldest summer in 16 years.

Every city in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and central and northern Alberta endured nine straight months with below-normal temperatures. Case in point: on March 11, the temperature in Regina dipped to –35.9 C. It wasn't the coldest moment of the winter, but no date in mid-March has ever been colder in the city in 127 years of records.

In contrast, the Eastern Arctic experienced its eighth-warmest January-to-November period on record.

Despite the absence of prolonged heat and humidity this summer, Ontario faced some of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in its history.

Among four people who died in the province was an 11-year-old boy who had been camping when a tornado touched down in the town of Durham in Grey County.

Ontario recorded 29 tornadoes in 2009, which tied the record for the most tornadoes in one year, set in 2006. On average, the province sees 11 tornadoes each year.