Extreme weather in Montreal

Extreme weather - hurricanes, tornados, scorching drought, and the like - not something we in Canada have to worry about? Hardly. Extreme weather events are defined in terms of the danger and actual costs they cause human populations. The $400 million Calgary hailstorm in 1991, the $1 billion Saguenay flood in 1996, and the $2 billion/25 dead ice storm of 1998 are vivid examples of what extreme weather can do in our own back yards. And there are serious hypotheses that the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events may change as the result of global warming.

In order to help advance scientists’ ability to forecast such events in Canada, the Meteorology Service of Canada (MSC) of Environment Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS), the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), the Network for Computer and Mathematical Modeling (ncm2), and the McGill University Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences are providing funding for four new major research initiatives in Montreal on extreme weather. Journalists are invited to a public symposium on extreme weather and a news conference to launch the four initiatives and the new McGill University Chair in Extreme Weather, as follows:

Date:
Thursday, December 6, 2001

Time:
08:45 - 11: 45 Public Symposium
12:00 - 12:30 Launch and Announcement

Place:
McGill University Faculty Club Ballroom
3450 McTavish Street, Montreal
Metro McGill or Peel

Program:

Public lectures

09:00 - 09:30
Nowcasting and Climatology of Extreme Weather
Isztar Zawadzki
Director, Marshall Radar Observatory and
Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University

09:30 - 10:00
Dangerous Weather - What Canadians Need to Know
Gordon McBean
Research Chair, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and
Chair, Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS)

10:00 - 10:30
Affronter le temps extrême : faits saillants de la nouvelle loi sur la sécurité civile et ses défis
Georges Beauchemin
Coordinateur Interministériel, Ministère de la Sécurité Publique, Gouvernement de Québec

Coffee Break

1:00 - 11:45
Global Weather Services in 2025: an Update
1Richard Anthes
President, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Colorado

Launch of research initiatives and Chair

12:00 - 12:45
Officials from MSC, CFCAS, ICLR, RCM2 (Réseau de calcul et de modélisation mathématiques) and McGill University will describe the four major initiatives on extreme weather research and the new McGill University Chair in Extreme Weather. Research leaders from the organizations involved will be available for media interviews.