A multi-billion-dollar drought dominated the weather news in 2001. The dry spell may be a sign of more to come, a leading climatologist says.

The nationwide drought topped Environment Canada's annual review of the country's weather trends.




"We just don't know when this story is going to end," says David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada.

The Prairies were hit hardest by the drought where sparse rainfall caused $5-billion in crop failures. Large parts of western Canada coped with the driest weather in decades, with daily temperatures between 31 degrees and 34 degrees.

The unusually high temperatures were about 1.5 degrees above normal on average, making 2001 the third-warmest year on record for Canada.

Lack of rainfall affected more than agriculture. Water levels in the Great Lakes fell and the dry conditions stretched well into the Atlantic provinces.

The warming trend also came with an alarming number of smog alerts and tinderbox conditions across the country. There were fewer forest fires in 2001, which Phillips credits to strict fire management rules.

Phillips also says the warm year adds to the file on global warming, but another warm year alone is not evidence of climate change.

But it wasn't just the heat that made 2001 an unusual year for weather. It was a year of extremes, from hurricanes pounding the east, a sultry summer in the Arctic and the record-breaking snow in Newfoundland.

St. John's was stuck in the path of every winter storm this year. The city received 648 centimetres of snow, shattering a century old record.

A "perfect storm" of three intense weather systems hit Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton on Nov. 7. Widespread blackouts resulted and the Confederation Bridge was shut down by winds gusting up to 155 kilometres per hour.

In December, storms toppled century-old trees in Vancouver's Stanley Park. Ferry service was also shut down for five days.