Climate change may make scenes like this a more frequent sight across the Canadian Prairies.
One of Canada’s most honored experts in atmospheric science is encouraging city planners across the Prairie provinces to modify building codes to accommodate a changing climate that is likely to bring more tornadoes and other severe storms.
Gordon McBean told a gathering of municipal ministers in Halifax that global warming is predicted to bring an increased risk of tornadoes in the years to come.
“Unfortunately, all of our building codes in Canada are designed on the climate of the last 30 years, and even the climate of the last 10 years is different,” he said.
McBean says he is most concerned about the likely increase in twisters between Alberta and Manitoba, where new neighborhoods have popped up in recent decades.
One of the measures he proposes is to increase the number of nails and brackets used to hold a roof onto a building.
Photo: NOAA
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