Canada is the only G7 country without a nationwide flood forecasting system and, according to scientists, the absence of such a system has come at a cost.

“Damages from floods and droughts have shot through the roof,” said John Pomeroy, an expert in hydrology and the Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan.

According to Pomeroy, the total amount of money spent recovering from climate-related floods and wildfires in Canada prior to the year 2000 was about $1 billion.

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Environment and Climate Change Canada this week released a report showing Canada is warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world. CTV Morning Live host Jeremy Dodge spoke with John Pomeroy, director of the Global Waters Initiative at the University of Saskatchewan, to get his thoughts on how the warming trend could change life in Saskatchewan.

Watch the full interview here.

The USask-led Global Water Futures has been designated as one of only three Regional Hydroclimate Projects (RHP) in the world by the GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Exchanges) project of the United Nations World Climate Research Programme.

Read more here.

Centre for Hydrology Director, John Pomeroy (left) and past student Sebastian Krogh (right).

University of Saskatchewan researchers with the Global Water Futures (GWF) program have provided the first detailed projections of major water challenges facing Western Arctic communities such as Inuvik and transportation corridors such as the Dempster Highway by the end of this century.

“There will be a tipping point reached over the next few decades, putting at risk communities whose infrastructure was designed for 20^th century climate and hydrology,” said Dr. John Pomeroy (PhD), senior author of a recent paper in the American Meteorological Society’s prestigious Journal of Hydrometeorology.

“Humanity has to act quickly and decisively to avert such a future, and that will involve reducing greenhouse gas concentrations and improving infrastructure to better withstand the extreme events that are coming,” said Pomeroy, director of the USask Centre for Hydrology and director of the USask-led GWF, the largest freshwater research program in the world.

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Centre for Hydrology director, John Pomeroy, voices his concerns that smoke and soot from nearby wildfires may be contributing to a faster melt rate on western Canadian glaciers in a recent CBC article.

Read more: Wildfire soot darkening glaciers could speed up melt rate, scientists fear

Congratulations to Caroline Aubry-Wake who won a Cryosphere Student Innovation Award from the American Geophysical Union at its Fall Meeting in Washington DC last week. The $1000 USD prize was for her proposal of an innovative method to determine debris cover thickness on glaciers. Great work Caroline!

Caroline Aubry-Wake, the winner of the Cryosphere Student Innovation Award, conducting fieldwork.

At a ceremony last month, the University of Saskatchewan and Natural Resources Canada signed a 5-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen the country’s commitment to manage its freshwater resources.

U of S Professor John Pomeroy is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, Director of the Centre for Hydrology at the U of S, and the Director of the USask-led Global Water Futures Program, which is the world’s largest university-led freshwater research program.

To read more visit: https://discovermoosejaw.com/local/u-of-s-natural-resources-canada-sign-5-year-mou

“I think we are going to fail to address it in a meaningful way.” Centre for Hydrology Director, John Pomeroy speaks to the Regina Leader-Post about the local costs of climate change after the recent release of Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) report.

To read more visit: https://leaderpost.com/opinion/columnists/politicians-need-to-understand-climate-change-has-big-local-costs

More than 500 wildfires were still burning in B.C. in September, with the Yukon, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and parts of the Atlantic provinces all experiencing one of the worst fire seasons in history. Globally, wildfires in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Sweden and Australia are burning at an alarming rate.

Ash and soot from the western wildfires are coating the Athabasca Glacier in the Rocky Mountains. Credit: Greg Galloway

According to John Pomeroy, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change and director of the University of Saskatchewan-led Global Water Futures Program (GWF), this is a horrific year for wildfires not only in Canada but around the world.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-09-wildfire-season.html

John Pomeroy has been named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for his outstanding research efforts that have changed the field of hydrology. The Royal Society of Canada is the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the arts, humanities and sciences in Canada.

To learn more visit: https://news.usask.ca/articles/research/2018/record-number-of-royal-society-of-canada-fellowships-for-u-of-s—.php