While many Canadians begin eagerly anticipate next month’s May flowers, experts are warning individuals on the Atlantic Coast not to get too comfortable, as the next winter will be “wetter, warmer, and stormier,” according to the CBC.
In particular, the province of New Brunswick will experience catastrophic losses as the result of extreme weather at least partially caused by global carbon emissions.
"Climate change will make Atlantic Canada increasingly wetter, warmer and stormier," Paul Kovacs, the executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, told the outlet. "And the time to prepare is now."
The institute is comprised of 30 scientists and 100 student researchers primarily funded by insurance companies to assess risks and reduce severe weather-related damage and injury.
When presenting recent findings to a meeting of premiers held in Quebec City, Kovacs and his team reported that in future years, it will not be uncommon for the Atlantic region to experience long stretches of time with temperatures exceeding 30, 35, and possibly even 40 degrees Celsius, the CBC reports.
"Within the next 40, 45 years we'll see twice as many days during the summer where it gets up that high, and higher," Kovacs said. “And there's research that shows when it gets that hot, it can be dangerous."
In the short-term, officials have suggested such temporary measures as installing cooling centers, particularly in areas with an expansive senior citizen population, as well as providing easier access to public pools.
In the long run, however, more drastic and far-ranging measures will need to be taken in order to prevent “irreversible” damage to the country and planet.
Kovacs’ findings mirror many other Canadian organizations that also found an increase in weather disasters across the country.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada has reported that catastrophe-related claims in 2014, many of which were weather-related, reached $3.2 billion, tripling the annual average over the prior five year. In addition, New Zealand is coming off the heels of a devastating winter that destroyed countless crops and machinery, and many provinces face a significant risk of floods in the next coming months.
